MediaTek Inc., a leading fabless semiconductor company for wireless communications and digital multimedia solutions, on Wednesday entered into a strategic partnership with Twitter, a leading communications platform.

The partnership that will see Twitter integrated into MediaTek’s mobile platform solutions, enabling users in emerging markets to access a rich Twitter experience via affordable mobile devices, more easily than ever before.

With this partnership, MediaTek will preload the Twitter application in its MRE middleware as the default feature in its reference design for mobile handsets. Mobile manufacturers and brands can expect to reduce the time to market and to develop product differentiation for their consumers. With MRE, smart feature phones will be able to run Twitter on minimal memory and hardware requirements, allowing manufacturers and brands to offer price friendly devices with value-added mobile internet services. People with smart-feature phones will be able to experience a rich native application experience of Twitter consistent with smartphone applications like Twitter for iPhone or Twitter for Android.

Mobile internet usage continues to grow every year, more so in emerging markets.  According to a recent study by media research firm Informa Telecoms and Media, emerging markets will account for 60% of the mobile market by 2013. With 70% of mobile handsets sold in emerging markets being feature phones, innovative products such as the MRE solution helps MediaTek to address the growing demand for mobile internet access. This global partnership underscores the significant potential to present users worldwide with a gateway to access Twitter.

MRE is MediaTek’s innovative middleware technology designed for mobile developers and application providers to deploy services and content for ‘Smart Feature phones’. The MRE solution provides millions of users in emerging markets with the ability to enjoy rich online experiences previously available only on smartphones. MRE enabled devices will enable many users to access leading Internet services, such as Twitter, in an intuitive way.

“Our new partnership with Twitter further reinforces MediaTek’s focus on providing differentiated services and value for handset brands, giving them the means to offer affordable, compelling and differentiated mobile solutions to consumers in key emerging markets ,” said Cheng-Te Chuang, Corporate Vice President of MediaTek.