Telecom Lead India: Chip major MediaTek is planning to shift
some of the existing and new projects to India from Taiwan, where it is
headquartered.
In Taiwan, MediaTek has less than half of its global
employee base of around 6,000. It employs around 170 people in India.
MediaTek has sales or research subsidiaries in Mainland
China, Singapore, India, U.S., Japan, Korea, Denmark, England, Sweden and
Dubai.
Based on the final decision, MediaTek India will be
expanding its manpower in India. MediaTek India claims that it is the
leading chip maker in mobile phone segment with 35-40 percent market share.
Grant Kuo, managing director, MediaTek India, told
Telecom Lead: “We are planning to shift some major projects to India shortly.
Final expansion will depend on the nature of the new and existing projects
which will be added here.”
Out of the 170 employees in India, around 100 people are in
research and development segment, while 50 are in QA.
Regarding the current 2G spectrum issue, MediaTek India
Managing Director said the present turmoil did not affect its business in the
country. Business in the year 2012 will be better than 2011. Though some of
the new operators are exiting the mobile business, there is no decrease in
mobile user base and mobile phone growth in India.”
Recently, ABI Research said mobile devices such as smartphones,
media tablets, and e-book readers are driving growth for a range of
semiconductor components including modems, applications processors,
wireless connectivity ICs, MEMS sensors, and audio ICs. Platform ICs including modems,
applications processors, RF components, and PMUs account for the bulk
of overall revenues, but are becoming an increasingly competitive section of
the market.
Revenue from chipsets designed for mobile devices has gone
up by more than 20 percent to $35 billion in 2011. The total semiconductor
market grew 2 percent last year. Chip majors including Qualcomm,
ST-Ericsson, MediaTek, Intel, Texas Instruments, Broadcom, Marvell, and
Renesas Mobile have positioned as platform solution suppliers.
Recently, MediaTek announced the launch of Mobile Theater, a
video and audio compression software solution designed exclusively for mobile
phones. Mobile entertainment has a huge potential in India. The industry is
estimated to reach $4.9 billion by 2015, according to Tavess’ Report. Mobile
music will continue to dominate the mobile entertainment services landscape
with significant growth potential presented by mobile video and TV.
MediaTek
plans to make more investment in India
Recently, MediaTek said it is planning to make more
investments in the Indian mobile market. “We are seeing more action in the
Indian telecom market. We will be considering more investments depending on
market opportunities. India is a major market for us to grow our
business,” Cheng-Te Chuang, corporate vice president
of MediaTek.