‘Android smartphones democratise the market’

Dr Finbarr Moynihan is General Manager, Corporate Business Development for MediaTek. In this role, he manages MediaTek’s global customer, partner and operator relationships. Prior to this, he was Director of Product Marketing for MediaTek’s Smartphone Business Unit – based in Hsinchu, Taiwan. During his recent visit to Nepal, Bijaya Giri of New Business Age talked to him regarding market prospects of MediaTek in Nepal.  

Excerpts: 

What is the purpose of your visit to Nepal? 

Our partner here, Teletalk, is announcing a range of products. We are here for the launching tablets and phablet devices based on our chipsets. Like other markets, we highly value Nepali market and local brands. 

Can you briefly tell us about your products? 

We mainly focus on big digital consumer markets – feature phones, smart phones, tablets, DTV, DVD, Set-top boxes and digital home platforms. We also centre our attention on things like WiFi routers and access points. We ship roughly 500-550 million chipset of mobile every year. We are in the mobile market since 2004, however we are still relatively new in the smart phone market – we started shipping 3G smart phone chipsets during the second half of 2011. 

What are the products you are currently supplying in Nepal? 

We mostly supply for our local partners here, like Teletalk. Colors mobile, as a local brand, uses our chipset. We mainly supply chipsets and solutions for feature phones - 2G Bar phones, low-cost android phones to higher-performance 4-5 inch phablet phones, which uses quad-core chipsets for higher performances. We also supply chipsets for 3G Data Cards. 

What prospects do you see for your business in Nepal? 

Like other markets, we have highly valued the Nepali market and local brands. We don’t make phones, but try to enable our customers and local brand partners, like Colors Mobile, to do so as easily as possible. The adoption of smart phones by the Nepali market is increasing and that is important for us. The emergence of Android smart phones democratise the market, which is heavily occupied by major technological giants. We believe that the consumer adoption of these smart phones, with access to data services, social networks and other varied applications, will continue to have beneficial effects for the societies that adopt them. 

Why should consumers choose your products? 

Because of the way we approach the market and we plan. We supply the chip but what we deliver to the customer is much more than that. We don’t make the final products but we deliver complete software solutions along with the chipsets. The products our partner delivers, at cost effective prices, are not lower in comparison with high end devices. For good user experience, the power consumption, battery life and multimedia experience fulfil the consumers’ expectations. 

How do you see the South Asian market? 

It’s been very important for us. For many years it’s been our major market for the 2G feature phone. The market effect we saw last year in China is now happening in the South Asian market. This means more tablets and more convergence from 2G to 3G. This trend is not going to stop and that’s why we are excited and focused on that.

What is the level of competition you face in Nepal? 

The competition in mobile space is always tough. Different brands, different chipset suppliers and so many other factors drive the market. This year, the sales volume of smart phones, as we expected, has been increasing so far in Nepal. The global competition in the smartphone segment is huge and tough for each major or minor player. You have to deliver better, faster and more affordable products to the consumer in order to be able to sustain yourself in the market. That’s part of life in this business. 

What are your future strategies? 

We are focusing on 3G and 4G high performing technologies, including smart phones and devices for emerging markets like Nepal. We are also centred on more affordable Data Cards.