From Alexa to Paytm speaker to TataSky to smartphones and TVs of all top brands, there is an invisible chip powering most of the consumer gadgets. Meet MediaTek, the Taiwanese heavyweight which has been silently flexing its muscle in India
Sunil Gupta tells us about the ‘visible’ side of the boxed story. “Till 2015, the shopping lingo of a smartphone buyer was confined to just four things,” reckons the retailer who has been in the business of selling handsets for over a decade. “Inch, MP, RAM and mAh,” he says, listing out the four must-haves sought by the consumers. While inch was all about the size of the screen, MP (megapixel) signified the visual prowess of the camera, RAM (random access memory) gave an idea about the might of the storage, and mAh (MilliAmpere Hours) denoted the power of the battery. “All these were the visible side of the smartphone, and were printed on the box,” says Gupta, who has three mobile and consumer electronics’ outlets across Noida and Greater Noida in Uttar Pradesh. Over the next few years, Gorilla Glass, he adds, happened to be the only new spec—and the fifth item—the buyers added to their customary probe list while shopping.