Qualcomm might be on the tip of everyone’s tongue, but the real winner? MediaTek. According to Counterpoint Research’s latest data, for the seventh straight quarter, MediaTek held the crown in the global smartphone SoC market. Some companies like Apple made a surprise comeback, but others, such as Qualcomm dipped. As for Samsung’s Exynos, it’s still fighting for relevance.
MediaTek: Quiet, consistent dominance
Q4 2024 results are in
According to the figures, MediaTek ended Q4 2024 with 34% market share, slightly down from the previous quarter, but still comfortably ahead of the pack. This might surprise some of you who think that Qualcomm is the dominant player when it comes to chipsets. After all, almost every major flagship phone uses its products.
But it turns out MediaTek is going after quantity by targeting mid-range devices. This is thanks to new mid-range chips like the Dimensity 8350 and 8400. The company is also targeting the budget sector with its Helios series of chipsets. This shouldn’t be surprising. While flagship phones are what typically makes the news, budget and mid-range phones are the true needle movers.
As for the competition, the data shows that Apple’s share jumped to 23% in Q4 2024. This is its highest all year. It’s also thanks to the A18 series launch which made its way into the iPhone 16 series. Interestingly enough, Apple’s market share actually outnumbered Qualcomm during that particular quarter.
Qualcomm’s share dropped to 21% for Q4 2024. Note that more phones using Qualcomm’s chipsets will launch in 2025, so it is possible Qualcomm will steal back its spot from Apple. However, it’s still a far cry from its rival MediaTek.
Samsung Exynos: Still in free fall
This is where it gets a bit sad. Samsung’s Exynos is stuck at 4%. For at least the past year or so, Samsung’s Exynos never went more than 6%. This could be due to the fact that the Exynos chipsets are almost exclusive to Samsung’s own phones. It doesn’t help that the Galaxy S25 series dumped the Exynos 2500 in favor of Qualcomm’s chips.
Will we ever see the Exynos chipsets grow more than that in the global smartphone SoC market? Right now, it’s hard to see that happening. Samsung damaged the reputation of its Exynos chips, so unless it can pull off a PR miracle, we wouldn’t be surprised if one day the company were to eventually call it quits on Exynos and just go all-in with Qualcomm or MediaTek.
