The future of semiconductors looks exciting and dynamic, and for MediaTek, this will bring more opportunities to innovate and excel with their offerings. In this exclusive, Rami Osman, director of business development, MEA at MediaTek Inc., shed light on the company’s chipset market leadership and commitment as well as the latest advancements they have that leverage 5G and new-age technology solutions.
Can you give us a brief about MediaTek’s technology offerings, products and solutions for the MEA region?
MediaTek is a global market leader in chipset technology, powers nearly 2 billion connected devices a year offering the industry’s most advanced solutions that help brands (OEMs) and telecom operators build smart and energy-efficient connected devices. MediaTek is one of the largest suppliers of smartphone chipsets in the world, also the global leaders in Android Tablets, Smart TVs, Voice Assistant Devices (VAD), Wearables, and many more smart device categories. Actually, one fifth of all homes around you feature chipsets from MediaTek. Recently, MediaTek has launched Pentonic 700, T830 Platform for 5G CPE Devices, Dimensity 9000+ and 9000 Flagship & 8100/8000 Premium Chipsets, first mmWave Chipset for Seamless 5G Smartphone Connectivity - Dimensity 1050, and Dimensity 930 and Helio G99 powers incredible mobile gaming experiences.
In the smartphone segment, MediaTek has powered several new products from major OEMs in the MENA region in the recent months with Oppo Reno 8 Pro, Vivo V25 Pro, and Xiaomi 12T among the popular names. They feature our MediaTek Dimensity 5G series of chipsets, which is marked by power-packed performance, superior energy efficiency, incredible gaming, multimedia, and camera enhancements.
In the Connectivity and Smart Home segments, we have been working on these focus areas:
- Internet reach: Our Optical Network (GPON) and WiFi chipsets are helping Telecom Egypt bring internet to millions of homes every year.
- Advanced Broadband: 5G CPE and WiFi 6 (11ac) chipsets are helping operators such as DU, Etisalat and STC bring the fastest wireless internet speeds to homes and offices in the GCC area.
- TV industry: Our TV, WiFi and Bluetooth chipsets are helping TV and home appliances manufacturers in Turkey and Egypt cover their local markets and export competitive products to Europe and Africa.
MediaTek is collaborating with OEMs and telco operators across MEA to help accelerate digital adoption and thus promote growth across verticals. In recent months, we have associated with leading providers like MTN and Vodacom in South Africa, with the aim of offering mainstream and premium gaming smartphones to customers, thus promoting digital inclusion in Africa. Thanks to the rapid developments in 5G, there is significant momentum around our MediaTek Dimensity 5G chipsets. To drive further adoption of 5G, we are also bringing advanced modem technologies like MediaTek T750 5G CPE chipsets that enable faster and seamless broadband access across both fixed and mobile network technologies.
The GCC region, which is identified as one of the world’s most advanced 5G markets, is a major focus market for us. We have been working with operators such as DU and Saudi Telecom to improve 5G user experience by delivering advanced network technologies like 3-carrier carrier Aggregation, also known as 3NR CA, NR being New Radio or 5G. Also, providers like Etisalat UAE have been relying on advanced modem technologies like MediaTek T750 5G CPE for fixed wireless access.
How does MediaTek leverage 5G and new-age technology solutions to deliver highly differentiated solutions?MediaTek has developed a comprehensive portfolio of chipsets dedicated to 5G technologies. They are built to meet the power and performance requirements of new age applications, be it gaming, camera, multimedia, AR/VR, AI, or advanced WiFi. The MediaTek Dimensity series of chipsets is marked by flagship processors which have now touched 3.2GHz of performance and RAM of LPDDR5X with speeds up to 7500Mbps, offering much higher power efficiency than the predecessor technologies.
To mention few other advancements MediaTek’s latest HyperEngine 5.0 Gaming Technology brings astounding gaming to smartphones.
The MediaTek Imagiq 790, our flagship 18-bit HDR-ISP design, lets users capture video on three cameras simultaneously, while ensuring exceptional power efficiency. The MediaTek MiraVision 790, along with the latest HDR10+ Adaptive technology, helps intelligently adjust the display to showcase the best visual enhancements on every app, media stream and gaming, with the optimal use of resources.
The APU 590, the 5th generation AI processor, is designed to achieve maximum effective performance in latest AI-accelerated trends and the cutting-edge 3GPP Release-16 M70 5G modem that’s built directly into the chip delivers extremely powerful sub-6GHz connectivity with advanced 3CC Carrier Aggregation (300MHz) support and up to 7Gbps super-fast downlink.
MediaTek also offers the open architecture MediaTek Dimensity 5G Open Resource Architecture, allowing device makers closer-to-metal access for cameras, displays, graphics, AI processing units, and connectivity sub-systems in selected MediaTek Dimensity 5G chips. This one-of-its-kind industry offering helps device makers create highly customized and unique products for their specific customer segments.
What is the long-term strategic roadmap you are planning to achieve in the region?We think the future of devices will revolve around 5G and IOT and the numerous applications these technologies enable, but we cannot forget the basic applications for millions of people in emerging countries, who still need our help to be a part of the digital world.
As a global brand, MediaTek wants to establish its leadership in every market, with a special focus on MEA, as it has been a key contributor to MediaTek’s stupendous growth over the past couple of years.
MEA is one the fastest growing region in the world with double digit growth potential, but each sub region has a different approach.
- Turkey will remain a focus area for us due to its advanced manufacturing capabilities. We are hoping for the local design ecosystem to catch up with manufacturing to push its competitiveness in the European market.
- Pakistan and Egypt are accelerating their manufacturing and localization strategies, so we are working with a few companies to help them succeed.
- GCC is a very advanced region, so our focus is on 5G, WiFi 7, Artificial Intelligence of Things and Metaverse. Our technology applications for 5G have achieved the highest speeds and we need to cowork with operators on the next thing in 5G. We will also keep pushing our Smartphone platforms towards the flagship tier with Dimensity 9000+ this year.
- Africa remains an area for growth, in terms of smartphones, so our focus is on bringing more features with affordable prices to enhance internet and multimedia access for the African youth hungry for learning, connectivity and entertainment.
Semiconductors are the building blocks of every device; in fact, almost every innovation that we see around us is built on semiconductors. Over the past couple of years, semiconductors have undergone a major transformation in both form factor and performance. Future semiconductors will be far more sophisticated, both in material properties and form. Advancements in fluid systems and use of germanium in place of silicon are being discussed as replacements for the existing parts. With greater complexity, the cost of production will also be higher, which experts say will override Moore’s Law.
Thus, the future of semiconductors looks exciting and dynamic; and for MediaTek, this will bring more opportunities to innovate and excel in our offerings. We are excited to be part of the smart evolution sweeping the industry.
