MediaTek has started its executive summit in California and is prepared to make a series of announcements highlighting the announcement of its entry into the platform Windows over ARM where until now only Qualcomm was.
Microsoft has been trying to consolidate this platform for a decade. But they have all been unsuccessful, from the first Surface RT to the current platform resulting from the alliance with Qualcomm. One of the hopes to drive this Windows on ARM was to have the participation of several suppliers and that there was a large supply of equipment. Microsoft failed to convince NVIDIA to enter this segment and ultimately opted for a 1: 1 development relationship with Qualcomm, similar to the one they had with Intel.
However, the maximum alternative to Qualcomm in mobile chipsets and specialized in low-cost developments, has made it clear that it intends to break into this platform. Surely, Apple’s success in using ARM for Macs is behind MediaTek’s strategy, although Windows on ARM, to become a consistent solution, has problems to solve in application support beyond hardware.
MediaTek believes that Apple’s transition to ARM has sounded like the death knell for x86 (at least for its huge market share) and that inevitably, most Windows machines of the future will use ARM.
«Apple has shown the world that it can be done“Says Eric Fisher, vice president of corporate sales and business development for MediaTek. «The Wintel partnership that has lasted so long is under some pressure, and when there is pressure, there are opportunities for companies like ours..
MediaTek already makes processors for Chromebooks and is expected to compete at the lower end of the Windows market over ARM. Faced with beginnings focused on the entry-level range, recent developments such as the Dimensity 9000 have become much more powerful. Although without reaching the level of performance of Qualcomm or Apple AX, the Chinese firm has managed to gain 40% of the market for mobility SoCs.
And now on Windows about ARM. In addition to Chromebooks, MediaTek also makes 5G PC modems powered by Intel, thanks to a partnership the two companies signed in 2019. This means that MediaTek already has relationships with PC OEMs, which can give you a good advantage when it comes to supplying your chipsets.
