There were already rumors that Samsung and Taiwanese chip and processor manufacturer MediaTek were in conversation with each other over the supply of processors. MediaTek has now confirmed that Samsung has become a customer. This suggests that Samsung itself stops with the development and production of cheap processors.
MediaTek is a chip and processor manufacturer of cheaper smartphones and tablets. The company’s chips and processors can be found worldwide in a large number of entry and midrange smartphones. Most of the smartphone portfolios, for example, Acer, Alcatel, and Wiko run on its processors. Samsung has so far never been used processors from it, but that may change soon.
“It is not possible for me to comment on (Samsung Note 7’s explosions) as Samsung is a customer,”
MediaTek Chairman Tsai Ming-kai told reporters during a tech forum late Monday night.
“We are also working hard to win business from Apple Inc.”
Reduce dependency, increase production capacity
Although it is not clear for what reason Samsung has gone into the contract with MediaTek because so far no Samsung smartphones with MediaTek processors have appeared yet. It seems obvious that Samsung wants to outsource the production of cheaper processors. The cheaper devices from Samsung are now powered by Samsung’s own Exynos processors or by cheaper processors of Qualcomm. On the relationship between Qualcomm and Samsung, there have been rumors that Samsung would like to reduce the dependency on Qualcomm.
The contract also gives Samsung more space to develop its own Exynos processors for high-end future smartphones like the Samsung Galaxy S8 and Samsung Galaxy Note 8.
