Breaking news today! Industry sources in China are reporting that Taiwan’s Mediatek have invested in smartphone maker Meizu.
Last year Meizu broke from the norm with the release of the Meizu MX4, their first smartphone to launch running a Mediatek chip in place of a Samsung processor. It wasn’t just any chip either as Meizu were the first company to get their hands on the MT6595.
Gizchina News of the week
Since the MX4 we have also witnessed the launch of the Meizu M1 note with MT6752 chip and Meizu M1 with MT6732 firmly solidifying the cooperation between the two companies so what’s next?
Industry analysts today have reported that Mediatek have actually invested in Meizu, although the number of shares acquired and the amount of money the deal is worth have not been announced.
The news comes after Xiaomi officially broke ties with MTK in favour of Qualcomm. What this means for future the future between Meizu and Samsung remains unclear.
Quacomm has invested over the years in lots of phone makers. In Qualcomm’s case i am not sure regulators should allow it since it’s clearly an anti-competitive move and given their share that’s problematic.
So it’s not an unprecedented move.
Intel is doing a similar thing in glasses ,they are buying their design wins with investments in startups that are trying to kickstart that segment.
…and let’s not forget that Alibaba dropped $US 590 Million into Meizu in February this year as well. I suspect Alibaba / Meizu / Mediatek are joining forces to take on Xiaomi and their “ecosystem”. Will be interesting to see how this plays out – does Alibaba see itself as the APPLE of the east?