In recent years, with the increasing saturation of the smartphone market, both upstream manufacturers and terminal equipment brands are hoping to find new growth points. As a world-renowned IC design manufacturer, MediaTek has begun to shift from mobile phone chips to automotive and smart home industries. Layout, has become a technology company in the semiconductor field that can span the three major platforms of mobile phones, smart homes and automobiles.
It is undeniable that in the future, artificial intelligence will cover all aspects of the general public life, such as mobile phones that people use every day, homes that are inseparable from everyday life, and cars that are indispensable for commuting, even more subdivided into toothbrushes, patch panels, slippers. , drinking fountains, etc. will have AI characteristics, which has become the future trend of the technology industry.
Thanks to the broad market space of AI applications, major chip giants have entered the field, including Qualcomm, MediaTek, and Hess, but unlike the smartphone market, the AI market is not just about launching a certain model. Chips or products can be used, more emphasis on the comprehensive quality of all aspects, which also puts higher requirements on the integration of enterprises in the AI ecology.
In the smart home field, MediaTek's performance is even more eye-catching. For example, MediaTek has occupied nearly 70% of the world's TV chip market, and MediaTek's share in the global wireless gateway market has reached 60%, as familiar. TP-Link, also a major customer of MediaTek.
For the discussion of smart home, the industry has a preliminary consensus. According to the introduction of the general manager of MediaTek's family entertainment products group, the smart home industry is divided into three categories: comfort, safety, fun, and safety. It's better to understand, for example, home security includes watching smart phones (such as cameras) around your home, and automatically responding when a thief or bad person breaks in (such as an alarm). At the same time, if your family is in the elderly or children, When you go to work or go out, they fall at home, the camera can automatically detect and notify you in time, and you can also know the babysitter's care of the child through the camera at home.
Home entertainment has also begun to evolve gradually, such as smart TVs, integrated VR devices, etc. In addition to the larger size and higher resolution smart TVs in the future, the audiovisual experience will further develop in the direction of VR. Based on existing information. Look, in the future, you can use VR to complete real-time live broadcasts. For example, you can watch concerts, basketball games, large boxing competitions at home, solve the problem of long distances, difficult ticket purchases, disordered scenes, etc. Even you only need to pass VR. The helmet can complete the 'face-to-face' communication of the office, and the video call will evolve into an immersive VR call.
Of course, it is undoubted that the current VR experience is not good. For example, consumers may experience dizziness after wearing for more than 10 minutes. According to MediaTek's introduction, VR technology will do more by 2020. Well, the new generation of VR products will not feel dizzy even after wearing for a few hours. Currently, MediaTek has also launched MT8185 chip for the consumer VR market. It is expected to officially meet with you next year, and then cooperate with MediaTek in intelligence. In the TV field, the future of smart family life will be more interesting.
Smart homes are also the hot trend in the industry. At present, the most prominent smart devices in the domestic market are smart speakers. Internet giants such as Ali, Tencent, Baidu, and Jingdong have all launched smart speaker devices, trying to seize the smart home entrance through voice at the first time. To complete the industrial layout of the Internet of Things, MediaTek's highly integrated solutions have been favored by the market. For example, the Tmall Wizard launched by Ali last year adopted MediaTek's solution and achieved good sales.
According to the monitoring data released by Avi Cloud AVC, the sales volume of smart speakers shipped in the Chinese market last year was about 1.76 million units. This year, the domestic market will see explosive growth, and the scale is expected to reach 15 million units. It is estimated that there will be about 60 million units. In this huge market, MediaTek has a market share of 60% to 70%, which is already at the leading level.
Compared with mobile phones and smart homes, the automotive field is much more complicated. The natural choice of auto giants lacking chip design experience is strongly integrated with IC design companies. MediaTek entered the field of smart cars three years ago. It is reported that MediaTek is currently There are three main types of products in the car, namely audio and video entertainment, including audio, multimedia, etc. Second, the millimeter wave radar, the previous reversing radar is realized by ultrasonic waves, and the advantage of the millimeter wave radar is that the car does not need to be used. The ultrasonic wave is used to install the ultrasonic radar for reversing, which is more convenient to install and has a larger working range.
The third is MediaTek's most popular communication technology, such as adding a 2G/3G/4G communication module inside the car to realize the Internet of Vehicles and real-time network monitoring of the car's data. However, if the car has an emergency, it can also contact the outside world for the first time. assistance.
Although there are still few electric vehicles or smart cars on the road, and there is still a long distance from driverless driving, but through Qualcomm's attempt to acquire NXP and MediaTek's early deployment of the automobile market, it is already an industry fact that chip companies have entered the automotive field. The smart life of the future will achieve a full penetration from communication, home to travel.
