In the near future, the upcoming Helio X30 flagship chip by MediaTek is speculated to make it into multiple Chinese flagship phones. However, with the second-quarter release date closing the demand projections found by MediaTek are far lower than what was initially anticipated.
GizChina released the specifications of the Helio X30 stating it as a "Snapdragon killer". It is no secret that Qualcomm's Snapdragon 835 is said to be closely in competition with the upcoming Helio X30 by MediaTek due to the shared 10 nanometer chips feature in both.However, while Helio X30 will be aiming to balance performance and energy use, Snapdragon 835 will be a full-throttle chip. It packs the ability to emulate x86 PC instructions sets as well as contains Google's TensorFlow machine learning skills.
Oppo and Vivo have yet to reach out to MediaTek regarding the current year's Helio X30 offering. Meizu as well as LeEco were initially hooked but the latter retreated from the deal due to a downhill fall in the company's finances. In the meanwhile, foreign clients as well as smaller companies have maintained a steady silence.
As much as this may appear to be an act of leaving one's options open, the year's comparatively low demand and commitment from companies has placed a lot of pressure on MediaTek. The company is left with no choice but to be judicious in regards to the deployment of upcoming flagship chips.
As if that all were not enough, one of the largest regular clients of MediaTek, Xiaomi, seems to have lost interest. Instead, according to Android Headlines, Xiaomi is pursuing its very own Pinecone chipsets side by side to their general usage of Qualcomm's Snapdragon lineup for their flagships.
Aggravated by the fact that many of MediaTek's regular clients are choosing to go global, the issue is also worsened by the increased inclination towards Qualcomm's chips. Other clients who had previously opted for the budget flagships offered by the company are now shifting the upper mid-range solutions of Qualcomm such as the Snapdragon 650.
As far as Huawei and Samsung are concerned, they too are tending towards the manufacture of their own chips now. This ripped out a large portion of MediaTek's potential client base. Previously, MediaTek had slammed rumors that stated they had plans on depleting orders by as high as 50 percent for the chip from TSMC.
