Huawei has over the past year faced some major backlash from the USA with it facing a trade ban from the Trump government and American companies being asked not to deal with the Chinese tech giant as it was accused of espionage and IP (intellectual property) theft.
The company lost the support of major tech companies including Google after which the company had to drop the Google suite of applications from its smartphones. With it also losing Qualcomm as a hardware provider, the company is looking for new providers that will supply it with 5G modems for their smartphones.
Two companies have stepped up potential candidates. Samsung and Mediatek are hoping to supply Huawei with 5G modems for mid-range and budget 5G smartphones. Huawei does make its own 5G modems for their in-house Kirin Socs however, the expected demand will be high enough for it to seek supplies from third-party chipmakers as well.
The four major 5G Modem manufacturers worldwide are Qualcomm, Huawei, Samsung, and MediaTek.
Huawei is known for delivering phones at a cheaper rate and with the 5G market thus needs low-cost modems for its mid-range and budget 5G smartphones from a third-party supplier.
Samsung has currently two 5G mobile modems on its product catalog, the Exynos Modem 5100 and Exynos Modem 5123. Both of these modems are designed for the high-end smartphone segment. Mediatek on the other hand has the Dimensity 1000 Soc. It now also has a more budget offering called the Dimensity 800 which too has a 5G modem.
It will be interesting to see who Huawei partners with – Samsung, MediaTek, or both. We’ll have the answer in a few months developments start taking shape.