Taiwan-based cellphone chip giant MediaTek Inc. (TWSE: 2454) is poised to supply small shipments of 3G WCDMA cellphone chips to Mainland China-based cellphone makers since the first quarter of 2009, including ZTE Corporation and Beijing Tianyu Langtong Communication Equipment Co., Ltd., citing a media report from Taiwan.

It is a challenge to Qualcomm Incorporated, the US-based developer of the CDMA technology, which owns all the related 3G core patents.

MediaTek had faced so strong a foreign rival on its growth way to 2.75G and 2G cellphone ships in the past, Ming-Kai Tsai, chairman and chief executive officer of MediaTek, acknowledged. He is confident that his company is able to reduce the competitive gap with this US rival.

2010 will be a key year relating to the 3G transition in the mainland, the Taiwan company predicted. Its massive WCDMA cellphone chip shipments will come in the second half of the year.

In 2009, MediaTek's consolidated revenues outraced a milestone level of TWD 100 billion.

source:ccidnet