Taiwan’s MediaTek launches affordable chip for low-cost smart watches

MediaTek launches affordable chip for low-cost smart watches

Taiwan’s MediaTek and US-based Qualcomm are two of the leading mobile chip makers. While the former is known for its low-cost solutions, the latter makes chips that power-up some of the world’s best smartphones, including the Samsung Galaxy S5, HTC One M8 and LG G3; Apple designs its own chips, in case you wonder.

Today we’re talking about MediaTek and their newly announced LinkIt Aster MT2502 System on Chip (SoC), which is made for the very low end of the market. What makes this a significant news item is that soon enough, we’ll have a number of little-known Chinese vendors joining the wearables market, launching smart watches that cost around or less than $100.

Specs wise, the MT2502 runs at a peak of 260MHz, and can go down to just 26MHz to save power. According to ARMdevices.net, it combines the “MCU, PMIC, Bluetooth, Memory and Modem” into one tiny, inexpensive solution that runs a distro of the RTOS Nucleus OS. Paired with the right battery capacity, the MT2502 can apparently last 4 days on a single charge; and in terms of screen resolution, the MT2502 supports displays of up to 320 x 240 pixels, which we find more than enough for smart watches.

What makes this a significant news item is that soon enough, we’ll have a number of little-known Chinese vendors joining the wearables market, launching smart watches that cost around or less than $100.It’s still unclear when the first device rocking MediaTek’s latest chip will be out, but chances are this will be a short wait. If we had to bet, we would say such smart watch will be officially announced by year’s end… though you never know.

With more companies entering the wearables space, prices will undoubtedly go south. On the other end of the spectrum, we’ll soon see Apple launching its premium iWatch product that won’t even try to compete in this low-end space…

[Via: GizChina]