Smartphone chips appear on an upward trend for Q4 2021, with Counterpoint reporting that MediaTek still maintains its lead in market share despite dipping by 4% to 33% (vs 37% in Q4 2020). Qualcomm and Unisoc, on the other hand, had the biggest gains, with both chipmakers getting a 7% increase in market share for Q4 2021.

Unisoc’s rise in market share is due to brands like Honor, Realme, Motorola, ZTE, Transsion (Tecno, Infinix), and Samsung using its processors for a number of entry-level to budget mid-range phones. Qualcomm’s increase in market share is credited for focusing more on higher-end Snapdragon chipsets from the 7-series and 8-series.

Looking at the Q4 2021 performance of MediaTek, Counterpoint explains that this is due to high shipments during the first half of the year.  Counterpoint remains optimistic for MediaTek to maintain its lead in Q1 2022 with the rollout of its Dimensity 9000 flagship chipset despite TSMC’s wafer price hike. The same positive outlook can be said for Qualcomm, especially with more brands shipping their phones with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor in Q1 2022.

Moving to 5G modems, Qualcomm further solidified its lead for Q4 2021 with a solid 13% increase in market share, as premium Android phones and all Apple devices make use of Qualcomm’s 5G modems.