In a bid to acquire control over essential components and lessen its reliance on Qualcomm and MediaTek, today, China’s largest smartphone manufacturer company, Oppo, has officially announced that it has started producing high-end mobile chips for its premium devices.
The information was confirmed via a Japanese firm which is also covered by a Twitter post early this morning by @Ishan Agarwal capturing:
According to the post, the company wants to utilize its own mobile systems-on-a-chip (SoC) in phones due out in 2023 or 2024.
“OPPO plans to launch the first phone with their own Soc in 2023-2024.”
With this development, Oppo will join a race of smartphone makers, the likes of Apple, Samsung, and Xiaomi, that are already developing their own processors.
Supply chain control could be improved by developing crucial chips in-house, which could help to mitigate major shortages, and disruptions and be capable of competing with the globe’s top semiconductor developers. According to insiders, Oppo is considering using Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.’s 3-nanometer chip production technology. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. is the world’s largest contract chipmaker.
According to an interview conducted by Nikkei Asia, Eric Tseng, lead analyst with Isaiah Research, revealed that the competition for smartphone firms to develop their own processors carries dangers, such as the chips not performing as well as standardized options from established suppliers.
“That’s why we don’t see a lot of players boldly use their own mobile processors, and why most of them started from developing image signal processing chips first.”
However, according to Brady Wang, an analyst with Counterpoint, identify two main benefits of smartphone maker having their own mobile processors.
“If everyone is using Qualcomm’s chipsets for flagship phones, then it’s very hard to claim that you have unique performance and products, Meanwhile, you have to compete for allocations of chips and resources with your competitors during a time of shortage, and do not have direct visibility of your chip supply chain.”
