MediaTek has reportedly offered Samsung an exclusive discount on its chipsets. The Taiwanese semiconductor firm wants the world’s second-largest smartphone vendor to increase the use of its processors in Galaxy devices. It is unclear if Samsung has accepted the offer.
We might see more Samsung phones with MediaTek processors
Samsung has been the world’s largest smartphone company for the past several years, until 2023. The Korean firm lost the crown to Apple last year, according to recent industry estimates. It still shipped more than 225 million Galaxy phones globally in 2023, comfortably leading the Android-only chart—distantly followed by Xiaomi with around 145 million shipments. Samsung’s annual shipment volume once topped 300 million units.
While Samsung makes some of the best and most expensive Android flagships, its budget and mid-range devices are volume drivers. These low-cost phones sell in incredibly high numbers in many price-sensitive markets. The company ships those phones with MediaTek, Qualcomm, or Samsung Exynos chipsets, sometimes opting for a dual-chip strategy for the same model. Flagship phones, such as the Galaxy S24 series, use Exynos and Qualcomm chips.
It appears MediaTek wants to increase its share in Galaxy phones. According to noted X tipster Revegnus, the Taiwanese firm recently offered special pricing for its chipsets exclusively to Samsung. Details are scarce—it is unclear whether the proposal was only for budget and mid-range SoCs or also flagships—but the firm is seemingly willing to take a hit on its profit to ship more chips to Samsung, which sells more Android handsets than anyone else.
The source also doesn’t make it clear when MediaTek approached Samsung with its offer and whether the talks have advanced further. The Korean firm has a bunch of new A, M, and F series products in the pipeline. The floodgates are expected to open in March, giving us a flurry of phones at every price point. If Samsung accepts the proposal, we should see more Galaxy devices with MediaTek chips this year.
Flagship Galaxy phones may stick to Qualcomm and Exynos SoCs
Over the past few years, MediaTek has emerged as a more viable competitor to Qualcomm in the flagship segment than it was before. However, Samsung might not switch over to the Taiwanese firm’s Dimensity chips for flagship Galaxy phones. It wants to increase the use of the in-house Exynos SoCs in the premium segment. Qualcomm is also its partner in this segment, so MediaTek likely doesn’t stand a chance, at least not anytime soon.