Handset chip designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) is increasing its presence in the emerging Internet of Things (IoT) market due to its earlier entry than its rivals, Gartner Inc said yesterday.
MediaTek provides a series of development boards, from entry-level to high-end models, for entrepreneurs or small companies to develop IoT devices using its chips. It launched its first IoT development platform, Linkit, in 2014, Gartner analyst Brady Wang (王哲宏) said.
“MediaTek has built its own communities and is accumulating its own [ecosystem] libraries,” Wang said. “All these efforts aim to translate into chip sales at the end of the day.”
Alchema (得心股份), a start-up that has developed a home cider brewer based on MediaTek’s Linkit platform, has raised US$344,231 via crowdfunding Web site Kickstarter from 899 investors, Wang said.
The figure was four times higher than Alchema’s original plan to raise US$80,000 within 45 days following its launch on July 26.
Meanwhile, Samsung Electronics Co has made some inroads by offering its development boards for chips used in drones this year, Wang said.
China’s Hisilicon Technologies Co (海思半導體), a chip arm of Huawei Technologies Co (華為), is also supplying IoT development boards for drones to its partners, Wang added.
Chinese chip designer Allwinner Technology Co (全志科技) offers IoT platforms to develop entry-level robotics, such as robotic vacuum cleaners.
Qualcomm Inc is also offering its IoT development boards for drones, he said.
Arduino and Raspberry Pi are the world’s top two IoT development board suppliers with more than a 50 percent market share, Wang said.
“MediaTek has an advantage over its rivals due to its strong presence in the Asian market, primarily China, but that is also a weakness as MediaTek will take a longer time to expand beyond Asia,” Wang said.
By 2018, 80 percent of IoT endpoint design would be prototyped on development boards, Gartner forecast.
Worldwide shipments of IoT devices are set to soar to 20.8 billion units in 2020, from 6.39 billion units this year, the market researcher forecast.
Development boards would help IoT developers shrink their product’s time to market and increase their profitability, Wang said.
IoT development boards can be used to develop indoor LED lighting, motion sensors, smoke detectors, product tracking tags and other devices, he said.
MediaTek’s IoT head J.C. Hsu (徐敬全) in June said that the firm’s chips used in IoT applications would double their revenue contribution to about 10 percent in the next three to five years.
IoT chips used in “smart” homes, wearable devices and the automotive sector would be the major revenue sources and China would be the major market, Hsu said.
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