MEDIATEK EXECUTIVE FORUM 2015, LONDON: MediaTek said it is looking to build on its existing technologies and partnerships to strengthen its push into the emerging Internet of Things (IoT) market, while highlighting the importance of developers to its efforts.

JC Hsu, VP and general manager of the IoT unit and new business development for the Taiwan-based semiconductor company, noted that common needs for features such as connectivity, power management and in some cases multimedia support across smartphones and IoT applications will work in its favour.

“There are so many different kinds of Internet of Things applications, but each of them right now isn’t big enough. So for many of our semiconductor competitors, they want to provide some sort of solution, but they don’t have the scale. Every year we ship feature phone and smartphone chipsets with scale which can support many different applications with the same or similar kind of technologies,” he said.

Hsu noted that many of MediaTek’s existing customers are moving into IoT, enabling it to get a foothold in the market. For example, smartphone manufactures are developing wearables, and set-top box players are looking to move further into home automation.

“We have some good foundation customers and technologies we can leverage in the key areas where we want to focus first,” he said.

While there are many uncertainties concerning where success in IoT will lie, Marc Naddell, VP of MediaTek Labs, said that this alone is not a problem.

“There are maybe some business models that aren’t clear. But that’s the opportunity: one company’s issue – lack of security, lack of a business model – is another company’s opportunity, to provide mobile advertising or security and sell that. Some companies will make money selling picks and shovels. Other companies will find the gold using those picks and shovel,” he said.

“That’s where the ecosystem comes into play. Companies that invest in the ecosystem are going to discover the solutions, and they are going to bring those solutions to their channels, they are going to create a new customer base for devices or services,” Naddell continued.

MediaTek has been building its IoT ecosystem efforts for some time, with a $300 million fund to support start-ups.

And developers will play an important role in its efforts. “They are the source of new solutions, new services, new devices, and new categories of devices. They are the ones that are going to be innovating with low-cost electronics, with the picks-and-shovels the industry is providing,” Naddell added.