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Xiaomi MediaTek insist on solid partnership on smartphone chips

In response to some rumor going on about a split-up, that is probably not happening.

http://focustaiwan.tw/news/ast/201411250023.aspx

Taipei, Nov. 25 (CNA) Chinese handset maker Xiaomi Inc. and Taiwanese chip designer MediaTek Inc. said on Tuesday their partnership remains intact, dismissing a Chinese media report that MediaTek will stop supplying smartphone chips to the enormously successful electronics company.

Xiaomi said in a statement on its Sina Weibo microblog that the report published earlier in the day on web portal Sina is "significantly false" and that the 4G version of its MediaTek-based Redmi 1S phone is selling well in China.

China's leading smartphone company by domestic shipments, Xiaomi has gained much success from its low-cost Redmi phones, which run on MediaTek chips.

"We will keep an open mind as we continue to work with more quality suppliers to jointly build smartphones with high performance-to-cost ratios," the Chinese company said.

MediaTek, the leading supplier of chips for Chinese smartphones, also took to its own Sina Weibo microblog to say that its partnership with Xiaomi remained normal.

The Hsinchu-based chip designer declined to comment on specifics about individual customers due to its corporate policy, adding that it will continue to provide various kinds of chips based on customers' respective product roadmaps.

The initial Sina report had cited industry sources to say that MediaTek no longer wants to supply chips to Xiaomi because the Beijing-based phone vendor plans to team up with a Chinese chip supplier, Leadcore Technology Co., to produce a cheaper 4G phone priced as low as 399 Chinese yuan (US$65).

The 4G Redmi currently costs 599 yuan.

Founded four years ago, Xiaomi overtook South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co. to become the leading smartphone vendor in China for the first time in the second quarter of this year, according to data from market research firm Canalys.

The Beijing-based handset maker has teamed up with many Taiwanese suppliers including panel maker AU Optronics Corp. and contract assembler Foxconn Technology Group, aiming to sell more than 60 million smartphones this year, a leap from 18.7 million units in 2013.

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