MediaTek has announced today that it has successfully completed this year’s MediaTek Smartphone Design Training Program (SDTP) in Taiwan, which saw participation from no fewer than 19 smartphone component manufacturers. That’s according to a press release from MediaTek, and is significant because it’s actually only the second year that the annual expertise-sharing program has been run. For those who aren’t already aware, the SDTP centers around and stems from two separate initiatives implemented by India’s governing body. The key objective of both is to promote professionals in the region to take part in the region’s smartphone and technology sectors – which have been growing explosively for the past several years. That growth has given India an opportunity to become a hotbed for new innovations and advancement – fueled by rapidly expanding network availability and fresh talent.
In total, 91 candidates were initially chosen from prominent, up-and-coming Indian smartphone companies such as Lava, Micromax, Karbonn, and Intex. No fewer than 39 of those were “short-listed” to take advantage of training in Taiwan that was led various industry leaders in technology. That training takes place over a 9-week period, following the selection. Meanwhile, the participating partners in the program are said to have included AAC, Airoha, Anritsu, Goodix, Ilitek, Keysight, Knowles, Liteon, Litepoint, Murata, MXIC, Nanya, Primax, R&S, Richtek, Voltafield, Sporton, TXC, and Unimicron. These aren’t necessarily the most well-known names in the minds of the public but each holds a significant amount of expertise in their respective sub-domains of the technology – which could be a huge advantage to the country’s overall goals.
MediaTek says that the purpose of its program is enabling handset makers operating in the country, with special attention paid to those from India itself, will be able to design and manufacture smartphones. More directly, the hope is that will be happening without those OEMs needing to look to experts outside of the region in the long run. Since this is only the second time the program has been run, there’s really no way to gauge how successful it will ultimately be. However, the initial results do appear to show some promise and this will certainly be a program to watch over the next few years.