Samsung's smartphone chipset market share declines in Q2: Report

Seoul, Sep 7 Samsung Electronics Co. lost its share in the smartphone chipset market in the second quarter of the year, a report showed on Tuesday, as Taiwanese brands expanded their presence with a rise in the 5G device sector.

Samsung, which makes Exynos chipsets, took a 7 per cent share in the global smartphone application processor (AP)/System on Chip (SoC) market in the April-June period, down from 12 per cent a year earlier, to take the fifth spot, according to a report from industry tracker Counterpoint Research.

"It slipped to the fifth position with a 7 percent share as it is in the middle of restructuring its smartphone portfolio strategy of in-sourcing, as well as outsourcing to Chinese ODMs," Counterpoint Research said.

"As a result, the share of MediaTek and Qualcomm has been growing across Samsung's smartphone portfolio, from the mid-range 4G and 5G models.

Taiwan's MediaTek expanded its dominance with a market share of 43 per cent in the second quarter, up from 26 per cent a year earlier, followed by US telecommunications chip giant Qualcomm, whose market share declined to 24 per cent from 28 per cent a year ago.

"Relative to Qualcomm, MediaTek benefited from less supply constraints in the first half of 2021, including with RFICs (radio-frequency integrated circuits), power management ICs (PMIC) and stable production yields from TSMC," said Dale Gai, a research director at Counterpoint Research.

"4G SoC shipments further helped MediaTek to strengthen its leading position."

Apple remained in the third spot with a 14 per cent share, while China's Unisoc stepped up to the fourth spot after its market share expanded to 9 per cent from 4 per cent a year earlier, reports Yonhap News Agency.

In the second quarter, global smartphone AP/SoC market grew 31 per cent year-on-year as 5G smartphone shipments jumped almost four times compared with a year ago, Counterpoint Research said.

The report also showed Samsung's presence in the fast-growing 5G smartphone baseband market also dropped to 10 per cent in the second quarter, down from 18 per cent a year earlier, to take the third position.

Qualcomm was the dominant leader in the segment with 55 per cent share, up from 29 per cent a year earlier, followed by MediaTek with 30 per cent.