Qualcomm, which laid the groundwork for 5G-ready smartphones late last year with the release of the Snapdragon 855 SoC and the Snapdragon X50 5G modem, focused its CES 2019 presentation on 5G and autonomous vehicles. We will see a lot of 5G devices this year that will be powered by Qualcomm’s equipment.
America’s largest carriers, ATT and Verizon had announced during the chipmaker’s 5G Summit last month that Samsung’s 5G smartphones getting released in 2019 will be equipped with Qualcomm’s 5G modems. Similarly, a lot of Android phone manufacturers will also stick with Qualcomm’s hardware.
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Majority of the 5G Designs Are Categorized Under Smartphones
During its press conference at the ongoing CES 2019 trade show, Qualcomm revealed that its 5G related hardware will be found in more than 30 devices this year, most of which would be smartphones. The company also claims that it has secured most of the 5G deployment chip contracts for 2019 and going by the numbers of OEM devices that have revealed to their intent to work with Qualcomm to release 5G-ready devices, the claim seems true.
However, it remains to be seen what Intel has to say about its work in the field in its press conference and whether it will counter this statement. Qualcomm also said that almost all of its 30 plus designs use Qualcomm’s RF (radio frequency) Front End solution which is a major feat for the company’s RFFE wing. 5G will give the company an opportunity to increase its RF chip market share, as an end-to-end silicon solution is vital to the technical requirements of 5G.
Like Qualcomm says, this is the year of 5G, and many developed markets such as the U.S., Australia, and China will roll out 5G networks this year. This means that the market is ripe for exploitation and Qualcomm, along with its partner OEMs, operators, and infrastructure partners will be at the forefront of 5G development.
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Smartphones are not the only devices Qualcomm is targeting as the chipmaker also launched its Snapdragon 8CX for Windows 10-based notebooks. The silicon will be found in machines starting later this year and we should witness a healthy competition in performance when the Snapdragon 8CX goes against Intel’s notebook-centered processors.
CES 2019 is still happening and we’ll have more announcements coming your way so stay tuned for more updates.
Source: Qualcomm
