Omdia: MediaTek surpasses Qualcomm Snapdragon in 5G smartphone market

Other chipset manufacturers, such as Exynos, Google, Kirin, and UniSoC, together accounted for 17% of shipments. This market share has increased over the past year, driven by the growth of Kirin chips, especially the Huawei Mate 60 Pro and Nova 12 series. Due to the continued tensions between Huawei and the United States in trade relations, HiSilicon announced the suspension of Kirin chipset production on September 15, 2020, and the Kirin 9000s chipset was finally discontinued in August 2023.

The main reason why MediaTek surpassed Snapdragon in 5G smartphone market share is the increasing popularity of phones priced below $250 equipped with 5G chipsets, and MediaTek dominates this segment. Figure 2 shows that in the first quarter of 2024, shipments of 5G smartphones priced below $250 surged 62% year-on-year, from 38.7 million units in the same period of 2023 to 62.8 million units. This is particularly beneficial to MediaTek because it is the first choice for 5G phones in this price range, while Snapdragon leads the mid-range 5G phone market and Apple dominates the high-end market.

As most chipset manufacturers shifted from producing 4G chipsets to 5G chipsets over the past three years, UniSoC took advantage of the opportunity to increase its share in the shrinking 4G market. UniSoC is currently MediaTek's main competitor in this space. During this period, Apple, Exynos, and Snapdragon's chipset portfolios have undergone a major transformation with a focus on 5G technology. For example, Exynos has significantly reduced its reliance on 4G chipsets, with its shipments of smartphones equipped with 4G chipsets falling from 77% in the first quarter of 2021 to only 1% in the first quarter of 2024. In contrast, more than 50% of MediaTek's shipments still use 4G chipsets.

Aaron West, senior analyst for smartphones at Omdia, explained: “The smartphone chipset industry is driven by two major trends: widespread adoption of 5G and the expansion of the low-end market. MediaTek will be the biggest beneficiary as 5G technology becomes more affordable and integrated into smartphones priced below $250. Conversely, on-device artificial intelligence capabilities are becoming increasingly important to smartphone OEMs, and Snapdragon has become a key innovator in this space and the first choice for high-end devices.”