Qualcomm’s ailing relations with Samsung made for a frosty start to 2015, but improved competition might be good for business according to one exec.
Paul Jacobs, executive chairman at Qualcomm, claims that the company now has a ‘clear path forward’, as reported by Cnet.
Samsung opted to not include Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 810 chip on its new flagship Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge handsets.
The company instead made use of its own custom-built Exynos series chipsets, leaving Qualcomm with a gaping hole in its yearly revenue sheet.
“Competition is good,” said Jacobs, however, unfazed by the snub. “
He added: “I think it’s a good wake-up call.”
US-based Qualcomm is still the market leader for mobile chips, and peddles its Snapdragon processors and radio chips to a host of big names, including Apple, Samsung, HTC, and many more.
The chip-maker now hopes to switch up its strategy, and is pouring $5 billion in annual research funding to developing ‘desirable technology’.
“What we’re really going to do is focus in on some of the high-impact things,” explained Jacobs. “And a few of the other projects. We’re going to do a little gardening.”
It’s not clear whether this means the company will continue to trim its roster of staff further; Qulacomm made 600 employees redundant back in December to keep costs down.
Related: Samsung Galaxy S6 vs S6 Edge: What’s different?
The next big launch on Qualcomm’s agenda is the the Snapdragon 820, a flagship chip briefly detailed by the company back in March.
We don’t know much about the chip, other than that it will carry a 64-bit ‘Kyro’ CPU core, will be built on a FinFET manufacturing process (16nm or 14nm), and will begin sampling in the second half of this year.
Amusingly, last month we reported that Samsung was in line to manufacture the Snapdragon 820 chip, which could be a sign of repaired relations.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
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We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
