The production value of Taiwan's IC design industry will grow only 3.3% on year to NT$637.3 billion (US$20.9 billion) in 2017, as a result of weaker growth coming from MediaTek, according to Digitimes Research.
Taiwan's IC design industry output value displayed a larger 14.2% increase in 2016, said Digitimes Research. MediaTek's strong handset SoC shipments, as well as Taiwan-based wireless communications chip and panel-use power management IC specialists' increased market presence, and memory controller IC suppliers' brisk sales generated from the SSD segment led to the impressive growth during the year.
MediaTek's disappointing handset-SoC shipments since 2017 will have a negative impact on Taiwan's IC design industry output value for 2017, Digitimes Research indicated. MediaTek is facing increased pressure in the low- and mid-end mobile chip segment, where its China-based rivals have rolled out more competitive products. Meanwhile, Qualcomm has enhanced its low- and mid-end chip offerings to bring more competition to the market.
MediaTek's high-end Helio X30 series has also failed to beat Qualcomm's Snapdragon 835, as Oppo and Vivo shifted orders for their flagship models to Qualcomm, Digitimes Research said. The loss of orders will negatively affect MediaTek's mobile-chip sales and market share for 2017.
