Update – A new report from Focus Taiwan has debunked the rumors. “Xiaomi said in a statement on its Sina Weibo microblog that the report published earlier in the day on web portal Sina is “significantly false” and that the 4G version of its MediaTek-based Redmi 1S phone is selling well in China.” So it looks like all’s well between Xiaomi and MediaTek!
China-based smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi is making waves. Despite the company’s products still largely unavailable in western countries, the company has managed to climb the ranks and has landed the number three spot as the world’s largest smartphone manufacturer. Xiaomi’s CEO also recently announced their goal of surpassing the likes of Apple and Samsung to claim the number one position.
That being said, could Xiaomi’s plans be in jeopardy of being derailed? Well according to a recent report, it seems that MediaTek might no longer be working with Xiaomi. Both companies have worked together in the past and thanks to MediaTek’s chipsets, it has allowed Xiaomi to churn out handsets with decent performance and very attractive prices.
However if the reports of MediaTek and Xiaomi splitting up are to be believed, Xiaomi could have a hard time trying to keep its prices down, which is one of the main attractions about the company’s products. Of course this is not all doom and gloom as Xiaomi is working with other manufacturers such as NVIDIA, Xiaolong, and Leadcore.
Qualcomm could be an another company that Xiaomi could turn to as Qualcomm does have affordable chipsets in the Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 and 400 models, but what do you guys think? Will the loss of MediaTek as a partner hurt Xiaomi’s plans to become the world’s largest smartphone manufacturer?