5G is becoming the new normal for smartphone companies in India even though the network standard hasn’t been launched commercially yet. Most of the smartphones in both mid-range and budget segments come with processors that support 5G. MediaTek is one such company that makes 5G processors and recently made it to the pole position in the mobile Processor space. However, the company has now said that 5G smartphones under Rs 10,000 may not launch in India this year.
No 5G smartphone below Rs 10,000 in India this year
In an interview with Sandeep Budki of The Mobile Indian, Anku Jain and Anuj Sidharth from MediaTek have said that entry-level smartphones in India might just not be ready yet for 5G support. The cheapest 5G smartphones in India start from Rs 12,999 as of now and thats the Poco M4 5G. While this price tag has considerably come down in the past couple of years, it is yet to breach the Rs 10,000 mark, making 5G smartphones accessible to a whole new segment of people. As of now, the price range for 5G smartphones in India has hovered around Rs 12,000 being the minimum amount.
Jain says that while the OEM sets the pricing strategy and it is up to the smartphone manufacturer to set a price for their device, MediaTek has an ”entire bouquet of 5G chipsets from mainstream to flagships which will help OEMs to strategise their pricing in a better way”. However, he also mentions that it would be difficult to expect an OEM to launch a 5G smartphone under Rs 10,000 this year and by next year, the complete dynamics might change.
What new Tech innovations MediaTek is working on?
Technology doesn’t stop evolving and companies have been working tirelessly to innovate new technologies to make things more efficient, fun, and useful. The new upcoming era of technology includes Metaverse, where the world basically goes digital for all its needs and it seems like MediaTek is working on this too. ”Metaverse is set to percolate in the society in the next 5 to 10 years as its a long term game. MediaTek is very well positioned to tap that potential as Metaverse requires high power CPU, power efficiency, multimedia, etc all of which MediaTek has expertise in”, said Anku Jain from MediaTek.
In addition, MediaTek recently announced the Wi-Fi 7 standard, and Jain has confirmed that further, MediaTek is also working on 6G. ”Multiple technologies are coming up and we are on the leading EDGE of those”, he added.
Read More: Top 5 smartphones based on MediaTek Chipset
What is MediaTek working on in the IoT space and what can the consumers expect?
While 5G will benefit the smartphone industry in a major way, other sectors such as the healthcare sector and entertainment industry are set to take advantage of it too. MediaTek SoC powered Smart TVs have launched in the past couple of months, highlighting the company’s focus on various products other than smartphones.
It recently also unveiled its new Pentonic Smart TV family of chips by introducing the Pentatonic 2000, which will power next-generation flagship 8K TVs. The MediaTek Pentonic smart TV series is built on MediaTek’s technologies in the display, audio, AI, broadcasting and connectivity. ”Our AIoT product portfolio called Genio has also had a bunch of additions in the recent time”, said Anuj Sidharth.
Chromebooks are something which is also employing MediaTek chipsets nowadays. Additionally, the company recently partnered in a Connected Vehicles event in Bangalore, where it demonstrated how multimedia and other advanced features such as tracking are being improved.
How is MediaTek handling its partnerships with OEMs for Android updates?
While software updates for Android smartphones were a big mess 5-6 years back, things have improved a lot since then. Almost all of the OEMs now guarantee 2 years of minimum upgrades to the Android version plus 1 year for security patches. In addition, companies such as Samsung are promising 4 years of OS updates and a major aspect behind providing updates for such a long period is the OEM’s partnership with the chip manufacturers.
If it’s a one-time partnership, updates may be affected after the term of the partnership ends but if it’s a multi-year partnership, the end consumer continues to get updates without any issues for years. Jain says that MediaTek not only has partnerships with OEMs but with Google as well as it plays a significant role in providing Android updates. ”All three of us work closely to ensure timely Android upgrades for the end consumer”, said Anku Jain. ”Multi-year partnerships are important and that’s what we have been doing for past several years with all our major OEM partners”.
5G Use Case Scenarios
As mentioned earlier, 5G will not only affect one industry but many and in a positive manner. While healthcare and educational industries will benefit a lot from 5G, content creation is a space that will make the most advantage of 5G in the context of India, notes Jain from MediaTek. Further, 5G will connect the unconnected such as with Broadband services in areas where connectivity is poor so it can reach all the corners of the country.