This announcement could deal a blow to Qualcomm’s slowing processor business. Among global top 5 vendors, there are only two major vendors such as Samsung and Lenovo offering Snapdragon-equipped phones. Even neither of them is exclusive Snapdragon customer anymore. And Apple and Huawei, of course, use their own custom processors.
Samsung sells Snapdragon-equipped phones but it uses its own Exynos processors in many of its devices. And it is beginning to reduce its reliance on Qualcomm. The galaxy S7 is only available with Qualcomm processor in some countries but the superior Exynos 8890 is available in everywhere else. Lenovo’s own-brand phones use Snapdragon processors but not exclusively. Some are powered by other chip makers.
So if Xiaomi ditches Qualcomm and goes it alone, Qualcomm needs to consider reducing its royalties as most manufacturers prefer to build their own chips instead of paying expensive royalty to Qualcomm.
저작권자 © Korea IT Times 무단전재 및 재배포 금지