Number 1, Number 2 and Number 3 in ARM/Android land are .....Qualcomm is still king, with Samsung at #2, but both are hitting rocky patches and are posting volume declines from years previous ...... both are still stealing volume from Apple, but overall their numbers are DOWN compared to years past.
Apple, who is still big simply sits outside of ARM/Android land -- Apple is also posting 20-25% volume losses compared to year past and
is losing upper end phone sales to both Qualcomm and Samsung accordingly.
Samsung just cut a deal to let MediaTek build their low end processor needs under MediaTek's own brand name while Sammy is switching some of their lines over to 7nm. Samsung is still building Qualcomm's big chipsets for them but Samsung is still way way down on 10nm sales volume in total
as they lost Apple completely to TSMC due to a lower TSMC 10nm production price. So, this year elevates MediTek to the Number 3 position, partially on transferred volume, but mostly because MediaTek is doing a lot of things right, lately.
Apple is currently getting their 10nm chipsets from TSMC and
guess who else is gonna be building up two brand new layers of lower cost 10nm chipsets at TSMC just as soon as Apple comes off this year's big processor build up ???? Yup, Mediatek comes in on those lines right after Apple production is done -- Mediatek who is making multiple production batches of those new huge 10 core chipsets
built at 10nm followed by a whole slew of brand new 10nm midrange chipsets. AND MediaTek who is already announcing new 7nm designs for next year, too.
Aiming right for Qualcomm's balls, they are.
Even Chromebooks are showing new designs based on MediaTek quad core chipsets that are already in the works,
so MediaTek is going to be showing up in laptops as well starting this fall. Somebody other than just Apple is going to lose some old volume this upcoming year as even Samsung acknowledges that you simply can't beat the pricing on those MediaTek midrange chipsets that are being built at TSMC.
Yup, it's INTEL's time in the bung barrel again this upcoming year as they currently have NO price attractive mobile/Chromebook chipsets that are either REAL or in the works for next year and
Intel has no current financial ability to "contra revenue" up a set either.
Also please note that the entire new range of powerful new A72 - A73 based 10nm - 7nm ARM chipsets that are being planned and protoyped by everybody right now have just showed up as "fully supported" inside the Linux kernel. The old saying about "always buy Intel for future use in Linux" just went into the past tense mode as out of date historical knowledge type stuff ..... Think of this as a Linux counter move to the Microsoft/AMD/Intel Walled Garden Lockdown and you won't be too terribly far off the mark.
So, MediaTek and TSMC are moving quickly to gather up all them lost production volumes left lying around all over the place for next year ...... including Intel laptops/desktops and any future Linux stuff as well.
Tipping Point -- this may well signal a tipping point in mobile/laptop/PC space.
This could be the beginning of the end for Intel and later, for Microsoft. Intel is waffling and floundering at the moment, showing no clear executable plan for much of anything, other than for laying off more high salaried silicon experienced employees who won't be very useful going out into the future. These activities will only speed Intel's progress down their slippery slope slide to obscurity.
The only thing lacking for making it a Perfect Storm against Intel right now is for Apple to say their newest homebuilt A10X / A11x 10nm / 7nm chipset is going to be going into their low end laptops instead of the old Intel chipsets -- as a large cost reduction and productivity improvement thing.
..... and then the Android 8.0 Phone PC rolls into play late next year .....
Yikes !!
Fiscal websites are betting that Intel will soon be forced to produce ARM designs at false loss leader "competitive prices" within 18 months out of a complete lack of choice. This activity will signal the next speed bump in Intel's slide to obscurity.