Will source chips from India for the world

Taiwan-based MediaTek, a global fabless semiconductor company, is in competition with its main rival, United States-based Qualcomm, across the world as well as in India. FINBARR MOYNIHAN, US-based vice-president (corporate marketing) of the company, tells Surajeet Das Gupta in New Delhi about MediaTek's India strategy, automotive play, and its alliance with Nvidia. Edited excerpts:

- Surajeet Das Gupta

Makers of devices in India say sales of mobile phones are slowing because 4G customers are not upgrading to 5G quickly because of the huge gap in prices. And this can be bridged if chip makers bring down chip set prices. What's your take on this?

Yes, the number of smartphones sold every year is not increasing. This has been fairly consistent for the last couple of years, the replacement cycles are becoming longer, and people are holding to their phones longer and they have a life beyond the first user too.

But one must understand that there will always be a gap between prices of 4G and 5G phones. A 4G phone will always be more BA affordable than a 5G one. So it's not practical to think we can make 5G cheaper than 4G. All we can do is keep pushing the 5G line further down.