Yesterday, MediaTek CEO Cai Lixing attended the IEEE Global Communications Conference and expressed his views on the current 5G market. Cai Lixing said that the 5G penetration rate will reach 18% in 2020, which is higher than expected at the beginning of the year, and will reach 49% in 2022, which means that half of the mobile phones will be 5G devices, and the penetration rate will exceed 60% in 2023.
When discussing how to respond to the Snapdragon 888, Cai Lixing stated that MediaTek will continue to focus on the high-end market and will launch a 5G flagship chip as early as the first quarter of 2021, before the Chinese New Year (February 12, 2021).
Although the specific details of the latest chip have not been announced, Cai Lixing’s response hinted that this flagship chip could rival the Snapdragon 888. According to speculation, this is the rumored MediaTek 5nm chip, which could be named the Dimensity 2000.
In addition, before the Dimensity 2000, MediaTek still has several high-end chips using the 6nm process scheduled for release, including a new SoC previously revealed by AnTuTu, which scored 622409.
The industry expects MediaTek’s 5G chips to be manufactured using TSMC’s 5nm or 6nm process next year. However, due to tight capacity in TSMC’s advanced processes, especially the 5nm process, nearly all of the recent capacity has been taken up by Apple. Therefore, whether MediaTek can secure support from TSMC’s 5nm process in the future will affect the supply of its subsequent chips.