made in Taiwan Regional
made in Taiwan Regional Spotlight Smarter Life... MediaTek strikes strategic partnerships to capitalise on connectivity by Gary Smith Healthy Growth In Taiwanese Market According to research company Research and Markets, Taiwan's consumer electronics devices market – defined as the addressable market for computing devices, mobile handsets and AV products – is projected to be worth around .9bn in 2011. This is expected to increase to .0bn by 2015 at a CAGR of 5%, slower than in the preceding five years. In the first quarter of 2011, Taiwanese vendors reported stronger than expected local sales of tablets, while 2011 target procurements of mobile handsets by Taiwanese telecoms operators were higher compared with the previous year. Among the factors expected to support consumption growth in 2011 are improved labour market conditions and stronger wage growth, with a potential 3% hike in public sector wages and a 3.2% rise in the minimum wage. Smartphones could account for as much as 50% of handset shipments in 2011, while LED TV sets comprised around 20% of LCD TV set sales in Q410, with this share projected to reach 30% in 2011. Computers accounted for around 50% of Taiwanese consumer electronics spending in 2010. Research company BMI forecasts that Taiwanese computer hardware sales will reach .0bn in 2011, up by a single-digit factor year-onyear. With PC penetration at about 74%, CAGR for the 2011-2015 period is forecast at 5%, and despite competition from new form factors, there will be growth areas in multimedia and entertainment notebooks as well as tablets. I FA I n t e r n a t i o n a l talked to Joe Chen, General Manager of Digital TV at MediaTek, a s e m i c o n d u c t o r company for wireless communications and digital multimedia solutions, about the latest ICs for Digital TV and how the company positions itself as a strategic and complementary partner to customers … MediaTek provides more than just silicon chips. We offer market-proven software and reference systems designed for each customer, based on their unique brand strength and feature requirements. MediaTek can provide both driverbased platform solutions and complete systems including middleware that are tailored to customers’ product strategy. MediaTek has worked closely with TV brands and ODM partners all the way from product definition, development, and verification up to the mass production stage. This collaboration model creates synergies between TV brand makers and their ODM partners in terms of delivering quality, competitive products with minimum R&D expense. What are the main SoC design challenges for connected TVs and smart TVs that will help bring the openness and interactivity of the Internet to viewers? It’s mainly a question of being prepared to make considerable research investment in advanced technologies across a number of areas, such as more powerful CPUs and GPUs, advanced wafer process technology, m u l t i m e d i a c o d e c s , s o f t w a r e p l a t f o r m development and the ability to support various protocols and wire/wireless interfaces. As a result, in the future, SoC solution providers will face more resource expense and increasing R&D costs which of course means that strategic partnerships will be beneficial. How does MediaTek enable the TV to connect easily with other devices in the home, such as smart phones and tablets? Is this a key benefit of the merger with Ralink? MediaTek and Ralink have a long history of collaboration in digital consumer products and share a culture of technical innovation. We see great opportunities to leverage the technologies t h a t M e d i a Te k h a s successfully deployed in wireless communication devices to accelerate the proliferation of connected devices throughout home and work. It is expected that wi-fi connectivity will continue to increase in popularity in the portable Joe Chen General Manager of Digital TV at MediaTek consumer and enterprise electronics industries, as well as the digital home. With our combined efforts in the fast growing market for wireless connectivity s e m i - c o n d u c t o r s , w e believe we will offer customers a world-class portfolio of wi-fi solutions and other networking technologies like Bluetooth, GPS, xDSL, and Ethernet. MediaTek’s portfolio of products and channels in handsets, connectivity, and digital home solutions will be greatly augmented by Ralink’s wireless LAN and broadband business. It is our joint mission to help global manufacturers streamline the procurement process by shortening the time to market, and to secure new opportunities quickly. What other benefits come from the merger with Ralink? The proliferation of mobile d e v i c e s , a p p l i c a t i o n software, media servers and cloud computing technologies is driving demand for ever-greater wi-fi performance and coverage. In order to ensure a better user experience, Ralink has created a range of cutting-edge technologies based on the latest Wi-Fi and Bluetooth standards. These include specialised wireless peer-to-peer (P2P) technologies tailored to the new generation of connected digital devices incorporating the latest Wi- Fi capability to push content from portable devices to TVs; the world’s first PC-centric single-chip to integrate both 1x1 802.11n wi-fi and Bluetooth 4.0LE technologies; and 3x3 MIMO solutions with OptiLinkTM technology for flawless transmission of HD video throughout the home. “MediaTek has worked closely with TV brands and ODM partners all the way from product definition, development, and verification up to the mass production stage.” www.ifa-international.org IFA International • Monday 5 th September 2011 15
