Qualcomm mentioned a possibility for the sales of its new mobile application processor (AP) ‘Snap Dragon 810’ to be slow. This remark draws attention as it is about the possible customer separation for Qualcomm, which is competing fiercely over the next-generation AP with Samsung Electronics’ Exynos 7420.
During a performance presentation on the 28th (local time in the U.S.), Qualcomm announced downwardly adjusted performance prospects for the future. The weekly net profit projection for this year has been lowered from $5.05 – 5.35 to $4.75 – 5.05. As for sales forecast, Qualcomm downwardly adjusted it from $26.8 billion – 28.8 billion to $26 billion – 28 billion. For this, a Qualcomm insider explained, “These adjustments reflect a slight decrease in the number of customers using our chips in the premium smartphone market.” He added, “A forecast that Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 810 processor will not be applied to a new flagship device to be released by our biggest customer has also been taken into consideration.”
Although Qualcomm did not specify the company’s name, the industry forecasts that Samsung Electronics will significantly increase the application of its Exynos 7420 processor to a new smartphone model Galaxy S6. This is because Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 810 has been associated with an issue of heating and also Samsung Electronics’ Exynos 7420 is showing superiority in terms of the disclosed specifications.
In terms of operating speed, Exynos 7420 with a speed of 2.1GHz exceeds Snapdragon 810 of 1.6GHz. In addition, applied with 14 nano technology, Exynos 7420 consumes less power than Qualcomm’s AP, which is based on 20 nano technology. However, Qualcomm is yet to be the only company capable of providing communication modem and AP in s a single chip. At a performance conference call on the 29th, a Samsung Electronics source said that it would be sufficiently feasible for the company’s independently developed AP ‘Exynos 7420’ to be applied not only to Samsung smartphones, but also to the products of outside customers. This source, although not disclosing the names of products or customers in detail, explained that the company is consulting for product supply with a number of smartphone makers.
In preparation for the release of new smartphone models this year, Samsung Electronics and Qualcomm are competing fiercely over their AP technological power. Although a relative comparison of smartphones mounted with the companies’ APs has not been carried out, the flow in the initial phase appears to be in favor of Samsung Electronics.
Through a separate report on the same day, Qualcomm Korea announced that Snapdragon 810 had already been applied for development to over 60 products including LG Electronics’ G Flex 2. The company added that it had started forwarding the product by successfully implementing functions required for flagship smartphones.