Interview with Rami Osman, Director of Corporate Sales and Marketing at MediaTek for MEA
In the first edition of Inc. Arabia's podcast, we speak with Rami Osman, Director of Corporate Sales and Marketing at MediaTek for the Middle East and Africa.
MediaTek is a Taiwan-based global semiconductor company that provides the core technology inside devices like smartphones, TVs, and routers, among other things. It works with partners across the electronics value chain including operators, device manufacturers, and distributors.
MediaTek is a Taiwan-based global semiconductor company that provides the core technology inside devices like smartphones, TVs, and routers, among other things. It works with partners across the electronics value chain including operators, device manufacturers, and distributors.
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TechTranscript
00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:03 OK, Rami, welcome to the "Ink Arabia" podcast with MediaTek.
00:12 It's great to have you with us.
00:14 Thank you.
00:14 Thank you for having me.
00:16 We wanted to know, can you tell us
00:19 a bit more about yourself and your role with MediaTek?
00:22 My name is Rami Othman.
00:25 I'm the director for Middle East and Africa region in MediaTek,
00:29 Taiwan-based global semiconductor company.
00:32 Basically, what we do here is we work with all the players
00:37 in the telecom and consumer electronics value chain,
00:42 from the telecom operators to the manufacturers
00:45 to the distributors, et cetera.
00:48 So this is-- it's very interesting,
00:50 because MediaTek is integrated in almost all the technologies
00:55 that we know, from mobile to TVs.
01:00 A lot of people know about the products
01:03 that MediaTek stands behind, but they don't
01:07 know much about MediaTek.
01:10 So would you be able to elaborate a bit
01:13 on how do you work with these?
01:16 Or first of all, who are these partners and customers
01:20 that you have, and then what you do for them?
01:22 OK, so consumer electronics industry is relatively new.
01:27 So when we were kids, we used to watch the CRT, CRT TV,
01:31 and basic calculators.
01:35 And I even forgot their names now.
01:40 All different electronic devices.
01:42 But you're coming up with new technology.
01:44 So now, everything is in one smartphone in your pocket.
01:50 MediaTek started in media.
01:52 So we were the first supplier who
01:55 took the MP3 and the Blu-ray and the CD disc
02:00 players to global success.
02:03 Based in Taiwan, started in 1997.
02:06 And from then, we kept on growing.
02:09 So what we do is actually we put different systems
02:14 on one microprocessor chip.
02:17 So the 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G communication, the Wi-Fi
02:22 and the Bluetooth, the central processing unit CPU,
02:26 the graphical processing GPU, and many other components
02:30 are on a single chip this size with very low power
02:34 consumption.
02:35 If you remember when we used to play music on our PC
02:39 and with the external speakers, you
02:42 used to have to buy a network card, VGA card, audio card.
02:48 You're taking me way back now.
02:50 So can you imagine that all these systems are on a chip?
02:53 We call it SOC or SOC.
02:55 Many people don't know what that means.
02:57 We also provide to the manufacturers the brands
03:00 that you love, like the Sonys, the Xiaomi, Oppo, Samsung.
03:04 We provide them also with a reference design.
03:06 So we give them the chipset.
03:08 And then we explain to them how to put it all together
03:11 on the board and how to make that device a reality.
03:15 We also supply the basic version of the software.
03:18 So I think we cut a lot of R&D time to the market.
03:23 And we optimize the cost for them.
03:26 Eventually, the consumer reap the benefits.
03:29 Of course.
03:29 Of course.
03:30 I think that's the ultimate goal all the time.
03:33 So it's my understanding that this region
03:38 that you oversee, Middle Eastern and Africa region,
03:42 it's a key and critical market for media tech.
03:47 So can you tell us about your relationships here
03:51 and how you've seen overall the technology evolving
03:55 in the Arab world, Middle East, Africa?
03:58 Media is complex.
04:00 It's more than 70 countries, 1.8 billion population,
04:04 so many languages, so many visas and cultures.
04:11 So it's not easy to manage.
04:14 But it's one of the last frontiers of growth.
04:19 And companies like us are looking for such regions
04:24 to continue our path to development,
04:29 whether it's on the innovation in the technology and product
04:33 or in reaching more people.
04:35 So how do you reach this 1.8 billion population
04:37 with these difficulties?
04:39 Every year, we have new focus areas.
04:42 So continuously mobile is a main theme,
04:46 because so many people still in Middle Eastern Africa
04:50 don't have proper access to the internet.
04:53 And mobile is probably the first window to the world.
04:58 A lot of people in Africa don't have TV at home.
05:01 And they don't have a laptop.
05:03 And they don't have fixed internet connection.
05:05 So their TV, their laptop, and their internet access device
05:12 is the mobile phone.
05:13 There's still room to grow there.
05:18 Middle East, GCC is a very advanced market.
05:20 So we have our flagship chips here
05:22 with the cutting edge 4 nanometer,
05:25 like what we launched with Xiaomi a couple of weeks back,
05:28 the 13T Pro.
05:30 It's on the upper end, higher end of the smartphone.
05:34 And there are markets like Pakistan,
05:36 like sub-Saharan Africa, where we still
05:40 need that $30 kind of smartphone.
05:46 And another theme beside mobility is connectivity.
05:50 Again, you have to look at Middle Eastern Africa
05:52 as advanced market somewhat in GCC
05:54 and emerging markets in other places.
05:58 In connectivity, we have products like in Egypt,
06:02 for example.
06:03 We still work with the government
06:05 to increase the penetration.
06:08 They have a nice project called Hayak Karima.
06:10 And our partner there, Telecom Egypt,
06:14 is doing a great job in reaching new households every year.
06:20 And it's using MediaTek DSL and GPON chipset and Wi-Fi chipset
06:24 as well.
06:25 The third theme after mobility, smartphones
06:28 and internet connectivity, is the IoT.
06:34 So IoT is a very big term.
06:36 What we're focused on is artificial intelligence, IoT.
06:39 So it's complicated.
06:43 IoT is when you make the machines kind of--
06:48 I don't want to say talk to each other.
06:49 It's a cliche.
06:50 [LAUGHTER]
06:51 But connected machines with some intelligence
06:54 so they can make the decisions on their own.
06:58 Scary.
06:59 [LAUGHTER]
07:00 And a lot of people-- well, you're
07:02 going to tell me why it's not so scary
07:04 and why it's an actual opportunity.
07:06 Yeah.
07:08 As long as a human's sane, the machine will be sane.
07:11 So I have to worry about the human first.
07:13 [LAUGHTER]
07:15 A lot of-- so this is actually a very interesting point of view,
07:22 especially with generative AI.
07:24 Everybody is worried that the machines will take over
07:28 and technology is going to take over,
07:30 whether it's in the workforce or in life in general.
07:33 So everybody is saying that we need the humans
07:40 and we need the actual human interaction.
07:43 And it will take special skilled humans
07:47 to take us to that next level.
07:50 What's your thoughts on all of this?
07:54 So we are a technology company.
07:57 There are many technology companies
08:00 who are in the AI development right now.
08:05 And the use cases are still in early days.
08:10 Actually, it's promising a lot.
08:15 And I cannot claim to foresee where is this ending.
08:22 There have been so many trends that had the hype and then
08:29 plateau, and then maybe some of them died out.
08:31 I don't feel like AI is going to die out.
08:34 But I also cannot know exactly what
08:38 will be the eventual hybrid equilibrium
08:42 between traditional human-based jobs and AI.
08:52 It will differ between countries and industries.
08:56 There's one thing that I can tell you,
08:57 that you cannot stop the development.
09:01 It will be based on the economical supply and demand,
09:05 like everything else.
09:08 So we have not been able to control
09:09 where globalization took us.
09:12 So many geopolitical circumstances
09:16 are outside of our control.
09:18 And nature and diseases--
09:22 the AI impact on our life, it could be something
09:27 like COVID short term, or it could be something
09:30 long-lasting like globalization.
09:33 We still have to see.
09:35 But--
09:35 It's a revolution, I guess.
09:37 Like the agricultural revolution,
09:39 industrial revolution.
09:41 I think so, especially in developed markets.
09:46 My worry that it will create a bigger, maybe bigger,
09:49 gap between the advanced and emerging markets.
09:51 Something that is-- don't know who's
09:57 responsible to work on that.
09:58 But for us, at least in media tech,
10:04 we are thinking about all kinds of consumers.
10:09 So for example, in our IoT range,
10:14 we have a variety from flagship Genio 1,200 to entry Genio 700.
10:22 So we want to give AI to the emerging markets.
10:26 So AI is moving from analytical to generative.
10:32 And with what we are doing, we are
10:37 bringing it to the emerging market
10:40 so it doesn't only stay in the cloud.
10:42 When you bring AI to the edge, it
10:45 can migrate to the emerging market and the people
10:48 that need it.
10:50 So I don't know.
10:51 I'm trying to think myself, how do we
10:53 bridge this gap of development between emerging and advanced
10:58 market, and whether AI is a curse or a blessing?
11:02 So we're doing our best.
11:05 Let's see.
11:06 OK, so obviously this is going to be in the near future
11:11 and the far future.
11:12 What does the future hold for media tech
11:16 in terms of new technologies?
11:19 And how do you foresee things going on?
11:24 Or in other words, what are media tech's future plans?
11:28 Many, because media tech is very big now.
11:31 It's a group of companies.
11:32 And if I talk only about Media Tech,
11:34 I think the key topics that we're working on--
11:40 of course, 5G.
11:41 5G, it's taking long.
11:44 I mean, 4G took, I would say, less than five years
11:51 to stabilize with all the features.
11:53 I think 5G is taking more.
11:57 So our 5G modems are developing on the smartphone.
12:04 And we're bringing that development to the 5G CPE.
12:08 The 5G CPE is the home router that gives you
12:11 internet access without wire.
12:14 So our products started to come to the market last year.
12:17 And we keep developing that.
12:19 And it can reach higher speeds and try
12:21 to also enhance the prices.
12:24 So more development on 5G, like going towards 5G standalone.
12:30 Higher number of carriers.
12:31 We call it NR, New Radio.
12:33 So now our current 5G chips for the home routers
12:37 support 2NR and 3NR, as we tested in Saudi Arabia
12:42 and UAE.
12:43 And we'll have also 4NR.
12:46 I don't think anybody has done it yet.
12:50 That's for 5G standalone with carrier--
12:53 non-standalone and standalone with carrier aggregation.
12:55 So increasing, enhancing the carrier aggregation,
12:59 more bandwidth, maturing the standalone networks,
13:06 support on the terminal.
13:07 Our job is to support these features on the terminal side
13:11 and do more testing with the operators.
13:12 That's on the 5G.
13:15 AI, we have been supplying the APU for a while.
13:19 So if you tear down to see the gut of our chipset,
13:23 you will see a small unit for artificial processing.
13:28 How the applications and the platform owners,
13:31 like Meta and Google, have been leveraging it was limited.
13:36 But now, like LLama2 by Meta, MediaTek
13:40 is working with those companies to give the developers access
13:44 to these generative AI platforms with our chipset.
13:48 It will save a lot of load on the CPU and the traditional APU.
13:52 So I would think that generative AI on our chipset
13:56 is going to be something soon.
13:59 The chipset itself, continuous squeezing, optimization.
14:03 So we were the first company globally
14:05 to work to certify with TSMC.
14:07 It's the factory, the foundry that makes the silicon.
14:11 We're the first company to certify 3 nanometer.
14:14 So next year, we'll see that kind of processors.
14:19 Maybe these are some few of the themes
14:21 that I want to share with you.
14:23 We took the Dimensity brand name to the auto.
14:27 So we announced Dimensity Auto.
14:29 Recently did this tie up with NVIDIA,
14:31 the world's leader in GPU, to complement each other.
14:35 And we created the Dimensity Auto chipset platform,
14:40 where NVIDIA will give us the ADAS, autonomous driving.
14:45 And MediaTek will give the connectivity,
14:48 in-vehicle connectivity, in-vehicle infotainment,
14:51 and telematics, and radars.
14:55 So that also will use the Dimensity brand name.
15:00 As heading the operations in Middle Eastern Africa
15:04 for MediaTek, one of the global company's biggest names,
15:10 what kind of advice do you have for aspiring professionals
15:15 and entrepreneurs?
15:17 We'll not give advice.
15:23 We'll give reflection, maybe, on what happened to me
15:28 and how I see things moving.
15:31 You know, the blend between education and experience
15:36 is always debatable.
15:38 So maybe-- I don't want to say advice,
15:41 but I always think about it myself.
15:43 Like, a wise guy, especially the young friends
15:49 who want to work in our field--
15:52 our field is big.
15:53 It's technology, business, marketing, sales.
16:01 Is that don't listen, or careful about what you hear sometimes
16:10 about successful people, because their story may be different.
16:14 So some people say, you don't need an MBA.
16:17 But if you talk to him, he studied all the MBA books.
16:21 So it's not about the degree.
16:22 It's about the learning.
16:24 And you need the learning.
16:26 So don't just take it at the face value
16:30 of what some people-- when you listen to some people.
16:34 Also, think about it.
16:36 He is very well educated.
16:39 He read a lot of books.
16:41 So maybe he doesn't like education,
16:44 but it doesn't mean that you should not get education.
16:48 And in terms of entrepreneurship,
16:54 I also learned not to think about entrepreneurship
16:57 as a buzzword, as is.
17:01 It's a very organic process, like plants, like random--
17:10 how the plants grow in the forest under the tree.
17:13 So the trees are the enterprises and the conglomerate.
17:17 And these plants grow under them.
17:19 It's a very natural and organic process.
17:25 Think about doing something.
17:28 Don't think about being an entrepreneur or a startup,
17:33 or I have to read books about that.
17:38 No, just think about the service or the product
17:42 that you know how to do or you're passionate about.
17:46 So if you can make something, then
17:52 you are an entrepreneur and business owner.
17:56 So think about creating, selling something, making something.
18:05 The company will come, and you'll
18:07 find yourself an entrepreneur, inadvertently.
18:10 So don't overthink this thing about the startup
18:13 and the entrepreneur.
18:14 You're spending too much time about reading
18:18 books about entrepreneurship.
18:20 Just go and make something.
18:21 Do it.
18:23 And you will be a very successful entrepreneur.
18:25 Two thoughts that came to my mind.
18:27 Brilliant.
18:28 Thank you so much for your time, Rom.
18:29 We appreciate it.
18:31 And we look forward to more innovation and technology
18:38 coming from MediaTek.
18:39 Thank you, and happy to talk to Inc. for the first time.
18:43 And good luck in your efforts in the Middle East.
18:48 I like this magazine.
18:49 I used to follow it.
18:51 I'm going to follow in Caribbean.
18:53 - In Caribbean.
18:54 Thank you so much.