EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Semiconductor company MediaTek believes growth in the smartphone segment will help it close the gap on market leader Qualcomm, COO Jeffrey Ju (pictured) told Mobile World Live.

In an interview at Mobile World Congress, Ju was bullish on the company’s prospects of increasing its share in the smartphone chip market as it develops its facilities and markets mature.

According to figures from Strategy Analytics, during H1 2016 MediaTek held a 23 per cent share of the global smartphone application processor market. Qualcomm led the market with a 39 per cent share.

“We will continue to look for growth from the smartphone area,” Ju said. “In the whole mobile semiconductor [market] we still have some room to gain from the other vendors as we have better and better technology.”

Ju said MediaTek’s technology and other resources leave it well placed to “grow our revenue and profit in mobile.”

He added the company expected to see further traction from its play in emerging markets: “In addition to China, South East Asia, Africa, Middle East, they will all experience good growth switching from feature phones to smartphones. This will benefit us and we will continue to grow in these areas.”

At the event, the company announced an agreement with Nokia and unveiled a number of products aimed at the IoT market, which Ju also believes offers the company a strong opportunity to grow its market share.

To view the complete video interview, which features an overview of its work in IoT, click here.