New Delhi, Aug 20 (IANS): Chipmaker MediaTek has emerged as the preferred chipset partner for smartphone original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) in India in the first half of 2021, a report said on Friday.

According to market research firm techARC, out of the total 117 smartphone models launched in the first half (Jan-Jun), 54 smartphone models used a MediaTek SoC. However, Qualcomm led the 5G smartphone launches with 20 out of 35 models using its chipset.

"While revenue market share is a factor of sales of smartphones for chipset players as well, the first acid test continues to be the selection, which is done after rigorous testing and assessment of platform by the OEMs." Faisal Kawoosa, Chief Analyst, said in a statement.

"This is an area where India needs to pursue 'Atmanirbhar' ambition rigorously and soon have a domestic player making chipsets for smartphones and other smart devices. We do have hopes in players like Saankhya Labs," Faisal added.

The report said that Qualcomm's Snapdragon 888 and MediaTek's Helio G35 tie for number 1 chipset with maximum number of smartphone models launched by OEMs.

In terms of maximum variants launched on a chipset, MediaTek's Helio G80 and Qualcomm's Snapdragon 732G were used as SoC for 11 variants each by smartphone OEMs.

The affordable segment (Rs 6,000 - Rs 12,000) and the mid segment (Rs 12,001 - Rs 25,000) were dominated with MediaTek based smartphones. While the premium segment (Rs 25,001 - Rs 50,000) and the luxe segment (more than Rs 50,00) were strong with Qualcomm chipsets.

Among smartphone OEMs Samsung led with 16 launches, closely followed by Realme with 15 launches. Vivo stood third with 10 launches. Across OEMs there were 178 variants of models launched for various price segments with different configurations.