Reports yesterday in technology media Digitimes suggest U.S. semiconductor giant Qualcomm is set to enter the smartphone market directly with an own-branded handset that could be launched before the end of 2020. Digitimes reports that the smartphone, which will be a premium gaming model, is being developed in partnership with Asus.
The latter will be responsible for designing and developing the hardware, which will run on Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 875 chipset. The Snapdragon chipset series has set a new standard in power efficiency and is used in many premium smartphone models. The company is expected to unveil the Snapdragon 875 at its annual showcase even on December 1st and 2nd.
Traditionally, Qualcomm’s annual reveal is of new microchip technology that will power the flagship smartphones of established brands to be released the following year. But this time around, the first smartphone to benefit from the latest silicon technology is likely to be Qualcomm’s own-branded model.
Asus is already established as a maker of high-end gaming phones, with its most recent model the Asus ROG 3. It will lend its experience to creating the new hardware for the Qualcomm phone, with the latter providing the ‘industry design’ and software that will run on top of its new Snapdragon 875 platform.
It is also considered likely that the joint venture gaming smartphone will share many of the same components as the next iteration of the Asus ROG. Displays, memory, camera, batteries and cooling systems are all likely to be the same across both models.
A large majority of 2020’s premium Android smartphones, including the Samsung Galaxy S20 series and OnePlus 8 series, run on the Snapdragon 865 chipset. The flagship models released in the past few months, like the Samsung Galaxy Note 20, mainly make use of the Snapdragon 865 Plus.
The Snapdragon 865 chipset was the first to support 5G and industry analysts are keen to see how the 875 will improve on its predecessor. It is hoped it will bundle a 5G modem with the chipset, in a similar way to how earlier versions of the Snapdragon 800 series bundled 4G modems. This saves space, which is at a major premium in flagship smartphone models.
It is unlikely that Qualcomm’s move will be viewed as a threat to its own customers such as Samsung and other major makers of Android smartphones, with gaming models still a relative niche market. Entering into direct competition with its chipset buyers is also something that Qualcomm would likely view as a strategic error. Nonetheless, the decision to produce its own-brand smartphone is an interesting development and one the industry will be interested to see play out.