Qualcomm gains share, Mediatek still leads in chipset market: Counterpoint

Qualcomm had a strong quarter in Q4 2021, growing 18 per cent quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) and 33 per cent year-on-year (YoY), largely propelled the sales of its high-end Snapdragon chips, according to Counterpoint Research’s Foundry and AP/SoC service. However, Mediatek retained its lead over the market with its 33 per cent market share.
Mediatek maintained its lead despite its SoC volumes declining in the quarter due to high shipments in the first half and inventory corrections from Chinese smartphone OEMs, according to Counterpoint’s research director Dale Gai. According to Gai, many customers had built significant chipset inventories to manage uncertainties with supply
In the meanwhile, the overall global SoC (system-on-chip) market grew 5 per cent YoY in Q4 2021. Qualcomm also dominated 5G baseband modem shipments capturing a 76 per cent market share. Counterpoint Research attributes this to the sales of iPhone 12, iPhone 13 and premium Android devices.

Apple maintained its third position in the smartphone SoC market in the same quarter, while Samsung’s Exynos chips dropped down to fifth position with a 4 per cent share, amidst the South Korean electronics giant modifying its smartphone portfolio strategy. As a result, Mediatek and Qualcomm grew across Samsung’s portfolio.
HiSilicon couldn’t manufacture Kirin chipsets due to the United States’ trade ban against Huawei. The latter’s accumulated inventory of Kirin chips is reportedly on the verge of exhaustion. Due to this, Huawei will be launching its latest series of devices with Qualcomm SoCs, but they will be limited to 4G capabilities.
Unisoc’s shipments continued to grow this year with the company having an 11 per cent market share. Its SoC shipments more than doubled in 2021, on an annual basis. The company also expanded its customer base onboarding Honor, Realme, Motorola, ZTE, Transsion and Samsung.