MediaTek says $100 LTE handset close to reality

Company targeting higher margin premium smartphone, priced above Rs 20,000, market in India

Taiwanese chipset maker MediaTek, which unveiled its premium chipset for fourth generation (4G) or long-term evolution (LTE) devices in India on Monday, believes that development of $100 (about Rs 6,100) LTE smartphones is close to reality, Finbarr Moynihan, general manager (corporate sales international), MediaTek said here.

While the company is targeting the higher margin premium smartphone, priced above Rs 20,000, market in India with its LTE chipset - MT6595 that could take on Qualcomm's Snapdragon 800 chipset family, MediaTek will continue to focus on 3G chipsets, especially for the Indian market.

"LTE in India will take some more time. The transition from feature phone to smartphone is still happening. The $100 LTE handset is yet to come, but is close to reality. However, features like screen size, camera quality and memory capacity, will be compromised," he said.

MediaTek, on Monday, claimed that its MT6595 chip is world's first octa-core 4G LTE System on Chip (SoC). This was first announced in February. The company hopes to sell about 300 million chips this year, out of which 30 million will be 4G LTE.

The number will further jump in 2015 and 2016 with more markets including that in India transitioning to 4G LTE technology.

"MT6595 is for the premium range of handsets. We have a very strong background in multi-media and this chip will give users an unmatched experience on their handsets," Moynihan said.

The company is in talks with local brands for the new chipset. Lenovo has already come out with a device with the chip.MediaTek has already announced an investment of $200 million in India. It has also opened a facility in Bangalore for research and development, besides its R&D unit at Noida.