American chip giant Qualcomm is currently brewing big tricks.
"Nikkei Business News" website reported on September 19 that Cristiano Amon, president of American communications semiconductor giant Qualcomm, held a press conference on the new generation communication standard "5G" in Tokyo on September 19. In the field of semiconductors for 5G smart phones, Qualcomm is highly competitive with Hisilicon Semiconductor, a subsidiary of China Huawei Technologies. Amon stressed that "5G will be implemented on smartphones at popular prices" and revealed the policy of supplying 5G semiconductors to smartphones at a wide range of price points.
Previously, including Qualcomm's competitors, 5G semiconductors were mainly targeted at high-end price smartphones.
In response to the global 5G development process, Amon said that "the scale will be larger than the (current) 4G." Amon said that "5G will not only bring about the leap performance improvement of mobile communication, but also enable many things to be interconnected", which is expected to be used in the industrial field.
Some public opinion believes that Qualcomm's efforts in the field of 5G chips are expected. Li Wei, a scholar at the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations, told the Reference Network that Qualcomm has strong R&D capabilities and good technical accumulation in the chip field, and it has advantages in the field of 5G chip research and development.
However, some media have observed that Qualcomm is facing tremendous pressure. The "Nikkei Business News" website recently reported that Qualcomm announced on July 31 that its operating income from July to September 2019 was down by 26% from the same period in 2018. Some media also noted that Qualcomm's third-quarter MSM chip shipments were 156 million, down 22% year-on-year. Nearly 48% of Qualcomm’s $9.6 billion (US$1 to 7.1 yuan) operating income was patented after reaching a settlement with Apple. Excluding this portion of revenue, Qualcomm's third-quarter sales were $4.89 billion, which is also below analysts' expectations of $5.09 billion.
In this regard, Li Wei said that at present, Qualcomm's situation is getting worse and worse, and the competitive environment is not good for it. On the one hand, Qualcomm's original authorized production methods are being questioned by more and more powerful manufacturers and inviting anti-monopoly investigations. On the other hand, Qualcomm's original important customers, Apple, are gradually getting rid of their dependence and increasing their autonomy. R & D efforts; In addition, Huawei's rapid rise in the field of chips has also made Qualcomm feel pressure.
Foreign media said that with Huawei and other mobile phone brands accelerating the production of chips, Qualcomm's market share has declined. According to data from US strategic analysis companies, Qualcomm's market share has dropped from 66% in 2014 to 49% in 2018, which is related to the accelerated production of chips by mobile phones such as Huawei.
Recently, in order to have a greater advantage in the competition, Qualcomm promised to bring the 5G mobile phone with high-end modem to the mass market, and said that the mid-range price mobile phone listed next year will also be equipped with its chip. At present, Samsung's five mobile phones are equipped with Qualcomm's fifth-generation chips, including the Galaxy S10 5G mobile phone and the new folding screen mobile phone Galaxy Fold. Samsung's lower-priced A90 5G phone also uses Qualcomm chips, the previous version is using Samsung's own chip.
Qualcomm President Cristiano Amon predicts that these phones will achieve considerable sales and scale.