Chinese smartphone manufacturing company, Oppo is now developing its high-end chips for flagship mobile phones, according to a recent report by Nikkei. Two people who spoke to the publication stated that the idea was to release custom SoCs in 2023 or 2024 “depending on the pace of development.” Oppo reportedly wants to utilize TSMC’s advanced 3nm process technology for the chips.
Oppo Is Also in the Race to Develop its Own High-End Chips
Moreover, if plans come to pass, Oppo would be the latest major smartphone company to take charge of its SoC design. Recently, tech giant, Google rolled out the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro, its first flagship mobile phones with a custom SoC called Tensor. Apple and Samsung also design their smartphone high-end chips, as did Huawei before US sanctions decimated its mobile business.
Read more: Oppo Pakistan Plans to Export 5 Million Mobile Phones Every Year
Qualcomm and MediaTek Can be Hit by A Major Loss
Oppo currently uses high-end chips from Qualcomm and MediaTek, like all other Chinese smartphone manufacturing vendors since the clampdown on Huawei. Xiaomi designed and released a low-end SoC called the Surge S1 for its budget Mi 5C phone in 2017, but since then its chip design efforts have been limited to secondary components like image signal processors.
Oppo is the Fourth-Largest Smartphone Producer in the World
As Qualcomm laid exposed in a salty Google subtweet last week, it would stand to lose out if major corporations like Oppo were to take on SoC design themselves. Oppo is the fourth-largest smartphone producer in the world by shipments, according to IDC, and given it shares a supply chain and ownership with Vivo, Realme and OnePlus, Oppo-developed high-end chips could quickly locate their way into flagship mobile phones from various mobile manufacturing brands.
Source: The Verge
