It’s only January but Qualcomm is already done with the quarter of fiscal 2015. The company was proud to announce a strong quarter with record quarterly revenues. The numbers look good despite facing patent infringement lawsuits by NVIDIA the previous quarter. However, the chip maker is said to be lowering its revenue outlook for the semiconductor business and EPS expectations for the 2nd half of fiscal year. Why do that when the first quarter achieved record revenues?
There are many factors why Qualcomm is doing that but mainly because of a change in share and heightened competition in China. The company also mentioned losing a large customer of the Snapdragon 810, its latest octa-core chip. It could be Samsung as we speculated last week because of overheating. Rumor has it that the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S6 will not use a Snapdragon 810 and instead use its own Exynos. We’re not sure about the real issue but Samsung could only be decided to use its own Exynos SoCs on flagship phones, the next-gen Galaxy S6 we expect to see at the upcoming Mobile World Congress. If this is true, then we can say the Galaxy Note 4 will no longer get a Snapdragon 810 update.
The South Korean giant ditching Qualcomm shouldn’t come as a surprise. Qualcomm could be expecting this high-profile customer pulling out officially very soon (or maybe it happened already). Nothing wrong with advancing that Exynos technology but Qualcomm has been very dependable on the past Galaxy flagship models.
“Expectations that our Snapdragon 810 processor will not be in the upcoming design cycle of a large customer’s flagship device”
Qualcomm didn’t say the name of the company but many people believe it is Samsung. Qualcomm should have nothing to worry about because there are still better opportunities especially in China where the mobile industry is booming. Being in an emerging market like China, the potential is big especially since the 3G and 4G LTE smartphones are quickly on the rise. But Qualcomm still has a positive attitude even if it’s facing challenges in China. You see, the company is still being investigated by the China National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).
Samsung may not be the only customer of the Snapdragon line but it could be the biggest. Qualcomm still has LG using the Snapdragon 810. There’s also Sony, OnePlus, HTC, and Xiaomi who even ditched Mediatek for a Qualcomm Snapgdragon earlier in 2014.
Let’s see if how Qualcomm commanding 63% of the SoC market will change this year.
SOURCE: Qualcomm
My guess is that the thermal issues were not adaquate for the new S6 design. Also taken the fact that Samsung are inexperienced with managing heat in a full metal build maybe.
If this has Exynos will be getting the M9.