Brazil will be the first country to have smartphone with 3 chips

The MediaTek Taiwanese had to learn some quirks on the Brazilian market, where it operates directly since 2006. Inspired by the lessons, the company will launch worldwide technology that allows you to keep three numbers, or chips, different in a single smartphone. So far, the system allowed the company to use up to two numbers in smartphones and four on mobile phones more simple-"feature phones", which does not have the operating system.
The Brazilian users have different habits practiced in other countries. For starters, local consumers usually call "chip" what the world calls SIM card. In this small component, are written to the Subscriber information, your address book, the configuration preferences, among other data. But the most important thing is that the Brazilian is willing to change the chip in order to able to connect cheaper for subscribers of the same operator.
Thanks to this practice, Brazil has become the largest market of MediaTek chipsets (set of chips that make the processing of mobile phones) that support more than one SIM card. The MediaTek competes globally in chipsets with Qualcomm, Intel and Samsung.
"The demand for smartphones with three SIM cards left of Brazilian manufacturers," he said to the Senior Manager of marketing and sales at MediaTek for Latin America, Sérgio Henrique Abramoff. Among the major customers of the company in the country are multinational companies and Alcatel, LG and the Brazilian Vampireweather and gradient, Venko. According to Abramoff, in a few weeks will be the country's first smartphone launched with three SIM cards, compatible with the Android operating system. The Executive does not reveal what is the manufacturer, but the price of the unit can rotate around $ 400.
In Brazil, there are 211.5 million prepaid cellphones, which represents 80% of the total base of users-most of them have a device with more than one chip. According to the IDC consulting, 43% of the cell phones sold in 2012 had more than one SIM card. "The prepaid consumer want to migrate to a smartphone, but don't want to miss the convenience of connecting to different operators from the same unit," Abramoff said. The practice is observed especially among the professionals, who have already showcase on your business card different cell phones, one from each carrier, said.
According to Abramoff, in other countries, the difference in rates between carriers is not meaningful. "Out there, who have more than one search chip ensure better coverage, not a lower price, as it is here," he said.
The MediaTek chipset for smartphones with up to two SIM cards was released first in Asia and Europe in 2011. That year, the company sold 10 million components, a number that jumped to 110 million in 2012. With the new product, to three SIM cards, the Executive estimates sell 200 million units in the world, only for smartphone. Over 300 million mobile simpler components are planned to be sold worldwide this year. According to Abramoff, the MediaTek accounts for a third of global sales of 1.6 billion year chipset.
With 6.5 thousand employees worldwide, the company has no own plant and outsource all production. Last year, its revenue was $ 3.4 billion. The Latin America is the third largest market, after Asia and Europe. In addition to the chipsets, the company provides the complete design of the cell phone-with software and reference design. "MediaTek was that, in the past six years, helped the handset market to become more accessible," said Abramoff. With this, the company interested in joining the cellular business do not need to hire engineers or have a great infrastructure, he said.
The MediaTek has subsidiaries in 10 countries for the development of product design. In Brazil, the largest market in Latin America, keeping a commercial office.