Taiwanese mobile chipset maker MediaTek has opened its office in Dubai, a move the the company believes will help it to court mobile handset manufacturers in the Middle East and Africa market.
The vendor is aiming to capitalise on its already growing business in the Middle East with its semiconductor solutions for wireless communications and digital multimedia solutions.
By having a local presence in Dubai, MediaTek will further strengthen the company’s regional partnerships to better serve one of the world’s fastest growing mobile markets. According to the vendor, the strategy for the Middle East is to link start-ups and existing mobile handset manufacturers in the region with its OEM partners in China.
Grant Kuo, MD at MediaTek Wireless LLC Dubai, says the expansion into Dubai better positions the company to serve its customers and to grow the business by more than 20% in the region. Kuo says the company’s plan is to open up business opportunities for all the OEMs it works with in China so that they can extend and capitalize on the growing mobile and smartphone market in MEA.
“With MediaTek’s experienced technical and services team, we are hoping to bring our expertise to the region and to better support local brands. Furthermore, it will help in establishing a healthy handset ecosystem in the Middle East region and explore the market potential in the long run,” adds Kuo.
Kuo explains that while the initial focus for the Dubai operations will be to work with local handset brands in the Middle East, the company already has partners on the Africa continent that are serving the sub US$50 mobile market.
He adds that the Middle East smartphone market is set to grow by 28.8% by 2015, according to a report from Value Partners consultants. “There is a clear surge in demand for smartphones and mobile devices in the Middle East market,” notes Kuo. “Our products range from high-end to low-end chips that meet the needs of operators in developed markets and enables them to offer feature rich smartphones at affordable prices for consumers in emerging markets,” he says.
George Zhu, CEO of TECNO, a handset brand in Africa adds that MediaTek is a strategic partner that meets global consumer demand and has brought TENCO an unprecedented level of performance. “TECNO has emerged as one of the popular mobile phone brands in Africa” he says.
Alpesh Patel, founder and CEO of Mi Fone, another handset brand sold on the African continent says as a brand that targets people with an income of $200 per month, working with MediaTek has made the company’s vision to provide devices with voice and data connectivity at an affordable price. “We are delighted to work with MediaTek and we would like ensure that they capitalise on the anticipated growth of mobile devices in the next five years,” he says.
In addition to opening its Middle East regional office in Dubai, MediaTek has also launched the new MT6236 platform. The MT6236 targets the feature-rich multimedia market and supports high-end graphic displays, web browsing and full-finger touch at a reasonable price. Key features include support 5Mpixel camera, mobile TV, HVGA display, integrated Bluetooth and full HTML browser. MT6236 platform is pre-integrated with MediaTek’s highly proven software solution to considerably reduce the design cycle time.
