South Korean tech giant Samsung is reportedly planning to sell its Exynos mobile processors to other smartphone vendors in order to boost its chip business. Right now, Samsung is the only company, except Meizu, that uses the Exynos mobile chips in its smartphones. Meizu has had a long-relationship with Samsung and is the sole third-party smartphone maker to utilize Exynos processors.
According to a report in Digitimes, Samsung will reportedly focus on the mid-range segment, which is currently dominated by Mediatek and Qualcomm. Although Samsung’s entry in the mid-range mobile chip business is going to have a little impact on Qualcomm’s operations, given the company’s monopoly in the high-end segment and its long-standing relationships with other smartphone vendors. MediaTek is not going to be so-lucky as the company has little presence in the high-end segment and it is completely dependent on mid-range and budget segments. Also, Samsung has better branding than MediaTek.
Samsung is currently the fourth largest chip maker in the world, behind Qualcomm, Apple and MediaTek. If the company is successful in the mid-range processor market, it maybe able to unseat MediaTek from the third spot.
With smartphone market stagnating in many big markets and the increasing competition from Chinese players, Samsung is looking for new revenue streams. The company also plans to use the Exynos processors in more of its mid-range phones, which we are already starting to see.
No specifics are known about the Samsung’s chip ambitions as this point. It is unclear if the company is already in talks with other smartphone makers or when we will start seeing its Exynos chips in phones from other companies.
To remind you, Samsung has been producing mobile chips since 2010 when it introduced the Cortex-A8 based S5PC110 processor (now Exynos 3 Single). It was used in phones like Samsung Galaxy S and Nexus S.
