Spreadtrum and MediaTek compete with each other in the "speed and passion" of chip manufacturers

Latest update time：2015-04-22

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Mobile phone manufacturers are busy and chip manufacturers are not left out either.

According to Taiwanese media reports, MediaTek is about to launch the 10 -core processor Helio X20 , which is expected to be shipped as early as Q3 this year .

Will mobile chips enter the 10- core era in 2015 ? The "speed and passion" of mobile chips is really coming fast. Let's summarize the different "passions" of various chip manufacturers in 2015 .

Competition in the low-end market intensifies, Spreadtrum wants to disrupt

As we all know, the smartphone chip market was dominated by Qualcomm and MediaTek, while other manufacturers had a small share. The low-end products of these two companies basically evolved according to the evolution of ARM 's public version. For example, in 2013 , MT6589 became very popular, and Qualcomm followed suit, abandoning the weak ARM A5 core and adopting the A7 core to launch products. At the end of 2014 , ARM's 64 -bit A53 core with better performance and lower power consumption appeared. Qualcomm and MediaTek continued to follow up and dominated the thousand-yuan phone market.

But the reality is that smartphone hardware has begun to be in excess, and the gap between low-end and high-end products is narrowing. The seemingly old ARM A7 core is still valuable. As long as the system is properly optimized, smartphones with the A7 core can still remain smooth.

Seeing this opportunity, Xiaomi invested in Unichip at the end of 2014 , obtained the 1860 license, and launched the Redmi 2A . And Spreadtrum is disrupting this market.

Recently, Spreadtrum released the SC9830A , which has a built-in quad-core ARM Cortex-A7 application processor with a main frequency of up to 1.5GHz , supports 4G five-mode, supports dual-SIM dual-standby function, integrates dual-core ARM Mail 400MP , NEON multimedia processor, supports 1080P HD video and 13- megapixel camera.

It should be noted that this specification is almost the same as the LC1860 of Leadcore , and in terms of price, Spreadtrum said that it can reduce the price of the whole machine to 400 yuan, which is even lower than Redmi 2A . Currently, the price of low-end mobile phones using Qualcomm and MediaTek chips is still around 1,000 yuan. If a mobile phone with similar experience is only 400 yuan, it will undoubtedly be a huge bargain.

Looking at the market landscape that Spreadtrum faces, its target competitor is actually MediaTek. Last year, Zhao Weiguo, chairman of Tsinghua Unigroup, said in an interview with the media: "Tianjin Unigroup hopes to surpass MediaTek in about five years and become the world's second-ranked IC design company with the largest shipments ."

Data shows that Spreadtrum's revenue last year was $ 1.2 billion, while MediaTek's revenue reached $ 2 billion five years ago and is now as high as $ 6.6 billion, making it one of the top ten IC companies in the world and the second largest in the mobile phone chip industry. In this regard, some industry insiders believe that "MediaTek has achieved rapid growth through mergers and acquisitions, and Spreadtrum may follow MediaTek's development path, and the involvement of capital will undoubtedly help Spreadtrum take a shortcut."

According to Taiwan media reports, MediaTek's revenue in February fell sharply, down nearly 40 % year-on-year . Facing the strong competition from Spreadtrum, MediaTek has planned to adjust the price of 3G chips by 10% to 15% , and will also slightly reduce the price of 4G chips.

MediaTek pushes high-end products, while Qualcomm increases investment in mid- and low-end products

Qualcomm and MediaTek have always been in a close battle in the chip field, with Qualcomm occupying an absolute leading position in the mobile phone processor industry. However, MediaTek's development speed should not be underestimated. It is understood that MediaTek entered the 4G chip market for the first time in 2014 , and its shipments reached more than 30 million chips.

At the beginning of the year, MediaTek just launched the first single-chip supporting CDMA standard in Beijing , including the quad-core product MT6735 for the mid-to-low-end market and the octa-core product MT6753 for the mid-to-high-end market , breaking Qualcomm 's monopoly in the CDMA field and adding confidence to its challenge to Qualcomm in 2015 .

Soon after, MediaTek launched the high-end smartphone chip brand HelioTM for the Chinese market to meet the growing demand of the high-end smartphone market.

HelioTM products integrate a variety of advanced mainstream computing technologies, have certain competitive advantages in multimedia innovation, and can bring the best CPU performance and multimedia experience to the next generation of smartphones. With the launch of HelioTM , MediaTek will accelerate its layout in the high-end smartphone market.

According to the reporter, " Helio " is taken from the name of the ancient Greek sun god Helios .

As MediaTek's high-end mobile processor brand, HelioTM includes two major series: the top performance version HelioTMX series and the technological fashion version HelioTMP series.

The HelioTMX series has strong computing power and multimedia functions; the HelioTMP series provides optimized PCBA size and ultra-low power consumption, which is very suitable for high-end functions in ultra-thin smartphone designs. The first batch of smartphones equipped with HelioTM chips will be available in the second quarter of this year.

As for why MediaTek launched a high-end chip brand, MediaTek President Xie Qingjiang said in an interview with the media that MediaTek's brand image and products are currently mismatched. Previously, it mainly focused on the growth of product market share, but in the future, MediaTek's goal is to establish a high-end product position in the mobile market.

"The fierce competition in the mobile phone market has made processor manufacturers, which used to be behind the scenes, pay more and more attention to the establishment of consumer brands. In the past, processor manufacturers, represented by Intel's ' Intel Inside ' and Qualcomm's Snapdragon brands, have been trying to increase consumer awareness through brand building. MediaTek hopes to change everyone's impression and increase consumer awareness through the new brand. At the same time, the new brand will also promote its entry into the European and American markets." An industry insider told reporters.

According to the reporter, MediaTek's goal in 2015 is to take 20% of the global 4G chip market share , and set the goal for 2016 at 40 % . This figure was less than 5% in 2014. This is undoubtedly a great pressure for Qualcomm, which occupies a dominant position in the industry.

Unlike MediaTek's entry into the high-end market, Qualcomm, which has an advantage in the high-end market, does not seem to be worried about MediaTek's attack. Instead, it is making efforts in the mid- and low-end fields occupied by MediaTek.

To this end, Qualcomm has stepped up its promotion of QRD , a "turnkey" model, against MediaTek , and has declared that all Qualcomm mobile phone chips will be QRD- based in the future. This means that Qualcomm 's QRD model advantage in the high- and mid-range will inevitably pass on pressure to the low-end market, and the only way MediaTek can deal with it is to continuously improve the cost-effectiveness of the Turnkey model, which will put its revenue and profits under greater pressure than before.

"The growth and rise of domestic chip manufacturers such as HiSilicon and Spreadtrum, as well as Intel's offensive in the Chinese market, will bring certain pressure to MediaTek this year. This is also the main reason why MediaTek is entering the high-end market." An industry analyst told reporters.

Origin: Communications world

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