Recently, MediaTek officially released the Dimensity 9000 processor at the 2021 Executive Summit. This is the world's first mobile phone chip using TSMC's latest 4nm process technology. The new naming method and powerful performance mean that the Dimensity 9000 is positioned above the high-end, which can be seen as an important step for MediaTek to move towards the top flagship.

In the mobile chip market, MediaTek's chip products are mainly concentrated in the low-end market. Although it is also making efforts in the high-end market, due to the lack of product support, MediaTek has always hovered outside the gate of the high-end market. At present, flagship mobile phones are basically based on Qualcomm chips, while MediaTek chips are mostly found in low-end and mid-range mobile phones.

At the Dimensity 9000 press conference, Cai Lixing, vice chairman and CEO of MediaTek, said that today’s Dimensity 9000 is a flagship 5G chip, which is the company’s active and continuous development in the fields of communications, artificial intelligence, and multimedia for many years. Outcomes of Technology Investments.

This means that MediaTek has begun to accelerate its impact on the high-end chip market. So, can Dimensity 9000 allow MediaTek to achieve a high-end breakthrough?

Dimensity 9000 won 12 world championships

According to MediaTek’s introduction, the Dimensity 9000 processor uses TSMC’s 4-nanometer process and is equipped with MediaTek’s fifth-generation AI processor. The AI ​​​​performance is four times that of the previous generation.

At the same time, the Dimensity 9000 processor not only supports a screen refresh rate of 144Hz, but also supports up to 320 million pixel cameras and 3 cameras to shoot HDR video at the same time. This means that mobile phone manufacturers equipped with Dimensity 9000 processors have been able to set off another hot-selling storm in the current fiercely competitive smartphone market.

It is worth mentioning that the Dimensity 9000 processor is the world's first mobile phone chip product equipped with a 4-nanometer process, which brings a certain amount of confidence and confidence to MediaTek's impact on the high-end chip market.

After the release of the Dimensity 9000 processor, many consumers were surprised. On the one hand, it is because many people think that TSMC’s 4nm process will be released to Qualcomm, and few people can think that MediaTek will be able to launch a 4nm process chip; on the other hand, the performance of the Dimensity 9000 processor is too high. Powerful, it has brought enough surprises to people inside and outside the industry after its release.

Since the release of the MediaTek Dimensity 9000 chip, it has won 12 world championships. Among them, the running score on AnTuTu exceeded 1 million, setting a historical record.

It is understood that the running score of the Dimensity 9000 processor is about 100,000 points higher than that of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 processor, the strongest processor in the Android camp. With the continuous optimization of the Dimensity 9000 chip, this running score is expected to be further improved.

It is worth mentioning that the overall power consumption performance of Dimensity 9000 is also remarkable.

According to the relevant data given by MediaTek: the Dimensity 9000 processor has been further optimized in terms of power consumption. In standby mode, the power consumption of the Dimensity 9000 processor is about 40% lower than that of the current Android flagship CPU. ; and in the game state, the power consumption of the Dimensity 9000 processor can be reduced by 25%.

Can MediaTek achieve a high-end breakthrough?

MediaTek's high-end road has been very difficult.

In the 4G era, MediaTek wanted to get rid of the low-end hat, hoping to seek a breakthrough through the "X" series. The Helio X10 did live up to expectations when it was first launched. The HTC M9Plus, which launched the X10, was priced at more than 4,000 yuan at that time.

But soon, Meizu and Xiaomi, who are also equipped with Helio X10, started a price war. The price of Meizu MX5 is 1799 yuan, and the price of Redmi Note2 is only 799 yuan. Xie Qingjiang, who was the vice chairman of MediaTek at the time, said helplessly: "I have only two choices, one is to count the banknotes with tears, and the other is not to count the banknotes with tears."

Not reconciled, MediaTek began to increase investment in R&D technology. In 2018, MediaTek invested 20% of its revenue in research and development, reaching NT$57.5 billion (approximately RMB 13.1 billion). In 2020, this figure has risen to NT$77 billion.

After entering the 5G era, MediaTek has risen strongly with the Dimensity series of 5G chips. Among them, the performance of the Dimensity 1200 chip is comparable to that of the Snapdragon 870, and the AnTuTu running score exceeds 700,000. The Dimensity 820 was the strongest mid-range device at the time, and its performance far surpassed that of the Snapdragon 765G and Kirin 820.

Whether Dimensity 9000 can become a hit in the high-end market depends on how many mobile phone manufacturers cooperate with it. What is more favorable for MediaTek is that currently OPPO, vivo, Honor, Xiaomi, etc. are actively deploying the high-end market. The high-end mobile phone market is extremely competitive. In order to ensure sufficient production capacity, mobile phone manufacturers no longer "bet" on a single chip as in the past. Instead, choose the "dual-core" strategy, and the adoption of MediaTek chips will increase.

According to industry sources, at present, top mobile phone manufacturers such as OPPO, vivo, Honor, and Xiaomi have passed internal tests for verification, and expressed their approval and support for the performance and power consumption of the new Dimensity flagship processor. Next year we will see Dimensity 9000 on more flagship phones. Of course, the launch of the world's first 4nm chip only puts MediaTek on the starting line of the high-end track, and whether it can break through in the high-end market remains to be further tested in the market after the flagship machine lands.

MediaTek's revenue this year is expected to hit $17 billion

According to a report released by the research organization Counterpoint Research, in the second quarter of 2021, global smartphone AP/SoC chip shipments increased by 31% year-on-year, and 5G mobile phone shipments increased by nearly four times year-on-year. Among them, MediaTek ranked first with a 43% market share, Qualcomm ranked second with a 24% share, and Apple was stable at 14%.

Cai Lixing, vice chairman and CEO of MediaTek, told reporters in an interview that MediaTek’s revenue will reach US$17 billion in 2021, about twice that of US$8 billion in 2019, and its net profit is expected to reach five times that of 2019. .

Qualcomm predicted at a previous investor meeting that in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2021, the released or shipped terminals equipped with the Snapdragon flagship platform will increase by 21% year-on-year.

In the latest financial reports of Samsung and Zhanrui, the former set the highest revenue level in recent quarters, of which the chip business accounted for more than half of the total revenue, and the sales revenue of the latter's 5G mobile phone business increased by 1458% year-on-year. Business sales revenue increased by 364% year-on-year. comprehensive