MediaTek has had a rather successful couple of years, especially since it launched the dual-core MT6577 chipset. The MT6577 promised to bring dual-core processing to the average user, at a price point that wouldn’t burn a hole in the buyers wallet. The Taiwanese maker quickly built up on this, and released more powerful chipsets soon — the quad-core MT6589 and the MT6582.
These still feature in some budget phones, and offer mid-range performance. What this did is, made the big guns (Sony, HTC, etc.) take notice of the rising maker. We saw the Sony Xperia C, a MediaTek MT6589 powered phone, fare quite well in the market. If that wasn’t enough, HTC took the MediaTek route with some of its phones including the Desire 310 which utilized the MT6582M, which made even the biggest of guns consider MediaTek as an option.
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Although it may sound far fetched for now, but there’s a rumour that the next Google Nexus device would make use of a chipset from the MediaTek inventory. While you may find it hard to believe, it makes perfect sense — Google’s Nexus devices are meant to deliver a pure, unadulterated Android experience to the everyday user at an affordable price. What both companies need to sort out is sharing of sources; MediaTek are generally criticized of not complying with open source policies put forth by Android.
What this will result in is a win-win situation. Not only will MediaTek find itself better accepted by users, but the next Nexus will also be cheaper than any previous release. We all know how capable MediaTek is with their manufacturing; the maker provides chipsets and radios for hundreds of manufacturers from all around the globe.
Considering how popular Nexus devices are, Google might even get a customized chipset for its next. While we’re currently only riding the speculation wagon, we really hope this doesn’t end here.