MediaTek Inc., a leading fabless semiconductor company for wireless communications and digital multimedia solutions, on Tuesday launched MT6575, its 3rd generation platform for mid and entry level Android smartphones.

The MT6575 platform offers a 1GHz ARM CortexTM-A9 processer, a proven 3G/HSPA modem and runs the latest “Ice-Cream Sandwich” Android 4.0 release.

“We expect significant growth in entry and mid-level smartphones, with wholesale prices under US$190, over the coming years. We forecast that this segment will almost triple in size from 191 million shipments in 2012 to 551 million by 2016. At that time, we also expect approximately 75% of those entry and mid-level smartphones to ship to emerging markets” said Neil Mawston, Executive Director, Global Wireless Practice, at Strategy Analytics.

The MediaTek MT6575 platform is ideally suited to cater to a wide range of smartphone devices that target this growing segment in multiple markets around the world.

“Leveraging the energy efficient, high performance Cortex A9 processor in Android smartphone applications is an extremely compelling proposition and a great proof point for the scalability of the ARM architecture. During 2011 the Cortex-A9 processor has powered many of the most up to date and highest performance smartphones. The proliferation of Cortex-A Series processors into lower cost, mainstream mobile devices will deliver a significant uplift in the user experience,” said Laurence Bryant, Director of Mobile, ARM.

For mid range smartphones, the MT6575 platform supports 720p high-definition video playback and recording with an 8MP camera and qHD (960x540) high-resolution displays via a PowerVRTM SGX Series5 GPU (graphics processing unit) from Imagination Technologies. In industry-standard benchmark testing, the MT6575 offered over 35% improvement for browser applications and over 20% improvement in graphics capabilities for gaming when compared to competitors’ best offerings in these segments.

“We are very excited by the prospects of the MT6575 platform. It combines MediaTek’s innovative chipset technology with our proven reference design and complete software solution model. We believe this platform is ideally suited to enable our customers to address mid and entry-level smartphone cost and performance needs on a global basis – today and tomorrow,” said Ching-Jiang Hsieh, President of MediaTek.

The MT6575 is currently being incorporated into the latest smartphone offerings by many of MediaTek’s leading customers and the first smartphone models based on this new platform will hit the market in the first quarter of 2012.