MediaTek, Facebook Team Up on Smartphone Business

Taipei, Nov. 10, 2011 (CENS)--MediaTek Inc., Taiwan's No.1 chip design house by market revenue, recently announced it has formed an alliance with social networking website Facebook to vie for market for quasi smartphones, which use 2.75G wireless chips but are loaded with smartphone functionalities.

A genuine smartphone is one that is equipped with 3G wireless chip.

In the deal, MediaTek will build Facebook into its MAUI Runtime Environment (MRE) software platform for the lower-end smartphones. Internet company Yahoo! and Chinese search engine Baidu have also been included in the platform.

MediaTek executives pointed out that the platform allows handset makers to develop more vivid Internet applications for their phones.

Quasi smartphones incorporating these Internet websites, industry executives said, would be particularly attractive to consumers in such developing markets as mainland China and India pursuing less expensive mobile computing devices connected to the Internet.

According to market consulting firm Informa Telecoms and Media, developing markets will absorb 60% of global supply of mobile phones in 2013.

MediaTek estimated at least half of its Indian customers would adopt MRE platform because it is the industry's first Facebook-enabled quasi smartphones. MediaTek's wireless solutions for mobile phones grabbed 40% of the Indian market for the solutions in 2010.

The company has entered into cooperation with Indian handset makers Spice and Micromax, Philippine handset maker Cherry Mobile and Indonesian handset maker Nexian on the combination of its solutions with their mobile phones.

Industry executives estimated MediaTek's partnership with Facebook to spawn more brand suppliers of smartphones in consideration of the charming feature.

MediaTek shipped 500 million mobile phone chipsets in 2010, becoming the world's No.1 handset chip supplier. For 2011, its shipment goal is set at 550 million chipsets.