Today, the global smartphone market has shown fierce competition. With the shipment of the Apple iPhone 13 series, the industry will gradually enter the era of 5G replacement.According to CINNO Research’s monthly sales monitoring data of the Chinese smartphone market, Apple’s iPhone 13 series released in September had strong shipments, and its A-series chips have increased substantially compared with the previous month and year-on-year.
It is understood that in September 2021AppleremoveiPhoneExcept for the 13 series, only iPhone11 Pro Max has a slight increase in monthly sales, which is about 10% higher than that in August. Other models all experienced a month-on-month decline. Taking the iPhone 12 mini (5G) as an example, sales in September fell by about 53% from the previous month.
As the market waits for the release of Apple’s new phone in September, other Android brandscell phoneShipments were affected to a certain extent, and the strong shipments of Apple’s iPhone 13 series also put pressure on Qualcomm and MediaTek. Qualcomm fell by 18.5% month-on-month, while MediaTek fell by 17.4% month-on-month.
Ziguang Zhanrui ranked fifth with 1.2 million SoCs in September, a decrease from the previous month, and a year-on-year increase of about 103 times; from the quarterly data, in the third quarter of 2021, Ziguang Zhanrui achieved about 4.1 million The number of SoCs achieved a 96% increase from the previous month, an amazing increase of over 147 times year-on-year. Ziguang Zhanrui maintains a high level of SoC sales, and its main supply brands areglory, China Telecom, Duowei, Nokia and Gionee; the main SoC product is “Tiger Ben T610”, which is carried by Honor Play 5T and Honor Play 20.
Huawei’s chip supply is still restricted by the ban, especially in terms of 5G SoC, so HiSilicon’s shipments fell 28% month-on-month and 75% year-on-year. According to quarterly data, in the third quarter of 2021, Huawei HiSilicon’s share of China’s 5G smartphone SoC market has dropped to 5%. At the same time, MediaTek, Qualcomm and Apple have gained market share missing from Huawei HiSilicon. In the third quarter of 2021, MediaTek and Qualcomm’s market share increased to 35% and 43%, respectively.
It is worth mentioning that in the third quarter of 2021, the market share of 5G models in the Chinese smartphone market was about 78%, a year-on-year increase of about 31 percentage points. The penetration rate of 5G smartphones is still increasing.
Qualcomm’s efforts in the low-end market
According to CINNO Research’s monthly sales monitoring data of the Chinese smartphone market, MediaTek accounted for approximately 52% of the low-end smartphone market (less than RMB 2,000), a year-on-year decrease of approximately 17%. Qualcomm’s proportion increased to 34%, an increase of about 20% year-on-year. Qualcomm is gradually squeezing market share in China’s low-end smartphone market.
Among mid-range models (RMB 2,000-5,000), as Huawei HiSilicon’s market share gradually shrinks, Qualcomm’s share increased to 528% in September, an increase of approximately 22% year-on-year; MediaTek’s share increased to 32%, an increase year-on-year About 19%.
Among high-end models (greater than 5,000 yuan), due to the recent launch of the iPhone 13 series and its good market performance, Apple is the main SoC manufacturer in China’s high-end smartphone market. In September, Apple’s market share increased to 73%. At the same time, Qualcomm’s proportion fell to 12%, a year-on-year decline of about 26 percentage points. And MediaTek has not yet gained market share in China’s high-end smart market.
In China’s low-end 5G smartphone market, MediaTek is still the main processor manufacturer, and Qualcomm is gradually squeezing the low-end 5G smartphone market. According to quarterly data, in the third quarter of 2021, Qualcomm’s share of China’s low-end 5G smartphone market increased to 47%, an increase of about 19% year-on-year, and MediaTek’s share fell to 52%, a year-on-year decrease of about 20%.
In the mid-end market, the two-tier structure is gradually presenting. In the third quarter of 2021, Qualcomm’s share of China’s mid-end 5G smartphone market increased to 52%, an increase of approximately 14% year-on-year, and the share of MediaTek increased to 36%, an increase of approximately year-on-year. 19%.
Benefiting from Apple’s good sales performance, Apple has formed a “dominant” competitive advantage in China’s high-end 5G smartphone processor market. In the third quarter of 2021, the proportion of Apple in China’s high-end 5G smartphone market increased to 76%, an increase of about 7% from the previous quarter, and the proportion of Huawei HiSilicon to 12%, a decrease of about 38% year-on-year. The proportion of Qualcomm was stable and reached 12%.
In the Chinese market, Qualcomm is still the leader in smart phone SoC, but MediaTek has been actively catching up in the low-end market in the past year or two. In terms of product layout and technology, MediaTek’s 5G technology and product capabilities have been improved, and the product matrix has also been improved.
Limited by the production capacity and yield of chip foundries, Qualcomm’s 5nm high-end chips are seriously out of stock, while MediaTek uses TSMC’s 6nm process to ensure production capacity and yield, so the supply of low-end chips is smooth.
Two super one strong
As for Qualcomm, aware of the shortcomings of its products in the low-end and mid-range markets, it has recently started to reorganize its product layout and recently announced the launch of four new mobile platforms-Snapdragon 778G Plus 5G mobile platform, Snapdragon 695 5G mobile platform, Snapdragon 695 5G mobile platform The Dragon 480 Plus 5G mobile platform and the Snapdragon 680 4G mobile platform complete the product matrix.
MediaTek is still actively embarking on the high-end road. It is reported that MediaTek’s next-generation flagship chip, Dimensity 2000, will be released together with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 898 at the end of 2021. At present, some sources have begun to expose the specifications of the two chips. All adopt more advanced 4nm process technology.
In terms of specific forecast specifications, Qualcomm Snapdragon 898 usesSamsungManufactured in 4nm process, continue to use the 1+3+4 eight-core CPU architecture, the super-large core uses Cortex-X2 core, the highest frequency is 3.0GHz, the main frequency of three large cores is set to 2.5GHz, and the four Cortex-A510 performance cores The main frequency is 1.79GHz, and the graphics uses the new Adreno 730 GPU.
The MediaTek Dimensity 1200 chip is manufactured using TSMC’s 4nm process. The highest frequency of the Cortex-X2 core super core is 3.0GHz, the three major cores are also clocked at 2.85GHz, and the four Cortex-A510 performance cores are clocked at 1.8GHz. On the other hand, it is expected to use Mali-G710 MC10.
From the point of view of specifications, the two are almost the same, but they use different foundries, and MediaTek is more aggressive in the main frequency of the big nuclear. It is the same as Qualcomm in terms of process selection and performance configuration, and the Dimensity 5G open architecture developed by MediaTek shows MediaTek’s determination to hit the high-end.
According to CINNO Research China’s smart phone market sales data forecast, Qualcomm will still be the largest mobile phone processor manufacturer in China’s 5G smart phone market in 2021, and the market share is expected to increase to 35%.At the same time, with the shrinking of Huawei HiSilicon’s share, MediaTek’s market share is expected to increase to 33%. In 2021, the market structure of China’s 5G smartphone processing market will gradually change from the “three strong” to the “two supers and one strong” competition pattern.