The competition of domestic mobile phones in the high-end mobile phone market has stimulated the performance of upstream chip manufacturers and accelerated the iteration speed of 5g chips. On March 1, after Qualcomm released the 5g baseband chip platform Xiaolong X70, its old rival MediaTek again launched a "encirclement and suppression" to the medium and high-end mobile phone chip market and launched the Tianji 8000 Series Using TSMC's 5nm process. A month ago, the release time of Qualcomm's Xiaolong 8 Gen 1 and MediaTek's chip Tianji 9000 was less than 10 days. The "gunpowder smell" of competing for the world's first 4nm process mobile phone chip has not dissipated, and the "massive war" of mobile phone chips in the high-end market has begun. "While Huawei Hisilicon's share is gradually shrinking, the 5g chip market has started a crazy filling war." A person in charge of domestic mobile phones told reporters. MediaTek and Qualcomm strive for high-end mobile phone chip market Since the beginning of last year, Huawei's lost market share has been quickly divided by the domestic android camp and apple, while the medium and high-end market has become a "key battlefield" for various mobile phone manufacturers. According to canalys data, Huawei accounted for 43% of the price range above $600 in the first half of 2020. By the first half of 2021, Huawei accounted for 13%, and the shares of vivo, oppo and Xiaomi increased by 6% - 8%. Benefiting from the large volume of several Android brands in the high-end mobile phone market, the performance of some upstream mobile phone chip manufacturers has also reached a new high over the years. The reporter noted that in fiscal year 2021, Qualcomm's annual revenue was $33.566 billion, a year-on-year increase of 43%, and its net profit was $9.043 billion, a year-on-year increase of 74%, while MediaTek's annual revenue in 2021 was NT $493.415 billion (about US $17.5 billion), a year-on-year increase of 53.2%, hitting a record high for two consecutive years, with a profit of NT $231.605 billion (about US $8.2 billion), a year-on-year increase of 63.6%. It is reported that MediaTek will pay dividends to employees with a total amount of NT $13.237 billion in the near future, with an average of NT $1.1 million to 1.2 million per employee, the highest over the years. However, MediaTek did not reply to this news. However, from the chip iteration speed, we can see that MediaTek is launching a fierce pursuit against "big brother" Qualcomm. "Tianji 9000 represents a step for MediaTek to attack its flagship, breaking the situation of market dominance, and the target market of Tianji 8000 Series is positioned as the high-end market." On March 1, Chen Junhong, deputy general manager of MediaTek's wireless communication division, told reporters including China business that the sales volume of consumer groups with more than 3000 yuan has increased one after another, and the whole high-end market is a battleground for strategists. Chen Junhong believes that MediaTek relies on the concept of "group war" in the high-end market, and the product layout is a "combination fist". Under such deployment, the market pattern will also change to some extent. However, judging from the current influence of high-end mobile phone chips, Qualcomm still occupies the market with an absolute advantage. On the previous Qualcomm analyst day, Qualcomm said that in fiscal year 2021, Qualcomm's revenue on Android phones exceeded 40% of its largest competitor. Qualcomm's internal staff told reporters that Qualcomm has focused more on the research and development of flagship chips, and MediaTek's growth in the past has benefited more from the growth of the medium and low-end market. At present, Qualcomm is also accelerating the full product layout of 5g chips to fight back. On the evening of February 28, Qualcomm officially announced the 5g baseband chip platform Xiaolong X70 and a series of chip products during the world mobile communication conference (MWC) in Barcelona. Gaotong said that in addition to supporting sub-6ghz and millimeter wave bands, the new 5g platform has enhanced network connectivity, energy management and other performance with the help of AI architecture. Who dominates the ups and downs of 5g chip market? "The arrival of 5g will accelerate the growth of Smartphone Application Processor market. 5g integrated chips (mainly below 6GHz) will begin to become a competitive advantage and promote the popularization of 5g to all price segments." Counterpoint research, a research firm, pointed out in a report that with the introduction of 5g smart phone chips by major suppliers such as Hisilicon, Qualcomm, MediaTek and Samsung, the market competition will become more intense. "Qualcomm has previously encountered rhythm problems in Samsung's manufacturing process, which gives MediaTek, which adopts TSMC's manufacturing process, room to catch up." A person close to MediaTek told reporters that in terms of market space, MediaTek is the biggest beneficiary of Hisilicon's "fall". While domestic mobile phone manufacturers seize the Huawei market, the demand for medium and high-end mobile phone chips has greatly increased. Compared with Qualcomm's chip price, MediaTek has more options, and TSMC has greater advantages in production capacity. "TSMC's production capacity in advanced manufacturing processes is undertaken by apple and MediaTek." These people said. Judging from the market share of domestic mobile phone chips, Huawei's Hisilicon and Qualcomm will occupy most of the market share before 2020. According to the data of China's mobile phone processor market in the first quarter of 2020 released by market research firm cinno research, in the first quarter, Huawei Hisilicon's market share reached 43.9%, ranking first, with a shipment of 22.21 million pieces. Qualcomm ranked second with a market share of 13.5% and apple ranked third with a market share of 8.5%. However, according to the latest data released by cinno research, the top five suppliers of terminal sales in China's smartphone SOC market in 2021 are MediaTek, Qualcomm, apple, Hisilicon and Ziguang zhanrui. Among them, MediaTek's annual shipment volume was 110 million, a year-on-year increase of 42.5%, Qualcomm's annual shipment volume in the second place was 107 million, a year-on-year increase of 24.2%, and Huawei hisilic's annual shipment volume was 30.2 million, a year-on-year decrease of 68.6%. Compared with the "three pillars" pattern of Huawei Hisilicon, Qualcomm and MediaTek in 2020, the "two super and one strong" competition pattern of MediaTek, Qualcomm and Apple will gradually appear in 2021. Affected by the ban, the sales volume of Hisilicon chips in 2021 was only 30 million, a year-on-year decrease of 68.6%, and its withdrawn market share was divided up by MediaTek, Qualcomm and apple. An industry analyst for China's Taiwan market told reporters that every chip manufacturer is trying different ways to seize new markets, such as speeding up product iteration, joint customization with terminal mobile phone manufacturers, and launching new process plans. "From the current mainstream direction of market competition, 5nm has become the most widely used mass production chip process in the global semiconductor field, and the mass production of 4nm process will determine the market voice in the next stage. Therefore, who can guarantee the voice of advanced technology will effectively help the competition in the next stage. (Xinhua News Agency)