MediaTek, the world’s third-largest chip designer, is likely to continue market-share gains in the Long Term Evolution (LTE) market at the expense of top-ranked Qualcomm by wielding its strength in China’s growing smartphone market, according to industry analysts.

MediaTek’s LTE market share is likely to double to 40-45% in the second half of this year from 20% in the fourth quarter of last year, according to a July 7 report by Randy Abrams, an analyst with Credit Suisse in Taipei. Abrams forecast that MediaTek’s LTE shipments will fall in a range of 160 million to 165 million units this year, exceeding MediaTek’s own expectations for 150 million unit shipments in 2015.

The company’s LTE application processors “gained good traction in China” during the first quarter this year, according to a July 3 report by market research firm Strategy Analytics. “MediaTek will continue to gain share in LTE basebands in the next few quarters,” Strategy Analytics analyst Sravan Kundojjala said in the report.

Taiwan-based MediaTek has enjoyed an advantage over other rivals in China, where it established strong business ties with local manufacturers more than a decade ago.

The smartphone business still has upside, as sales are likely to swell from 1.5 billion units in 2015 to 1.7 billion by 2017, according to Strategy Analytics. While China, India and the U.S. are driving smartphone growth worldwide, India will overtake the U.S. by 2017 to become the world’s second-largest smartphone market, Strategy Analytics analyst Neil Mawston said in a July 1 report.

China, which also makes most of the smartphones sold in the rest of the world, is a strategic focus for chipmakers such as LTE market leader Qualcomm, followed by MediaTek, Spreadtrum, Samsung, Marvell and Intel. “We expect Spreadtrum to gain share in LTE basebands too with its LTE apps processors,” according to the Strategy Analytics analyst.

By: DocMemory
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