LG Huawei to increase chip investment in high-fidelity rivals

Since the launch of the Mobile World Congress in 2013, the world's leading manufacturers have gathered in Barcelona, ​​Spain, to present their latest products to the global industry and consumers. Although there is no Google booth, Microsoft's conference, but Samsung, Nokia, HTC, Huawei, LG, etc., are still worth looking forward to.

Nokia announced the thinnest Lumia 720 in the current Windows Phone 8 series; ZTE launched 5.7-inch touch screen product: Grand Memo, expecting a breakthrough in the mid-to-high-end market; LG Optimus G Pro is the star of the LG booth. . These flagship end products are equipped with Qualcomm's Opteron processors.

Qualcomm's chip bid farewell to "high and low"

In fiscal year 2012, Qualcomm delivered 590 million chips and generated revenue of US$19.1 billion. Qualcomm expects revenue for 2013 fiscal year will increase to between 23 billion and 24 billion US dollars.

According to the latest data from research firm iSuppli, in the field of mobile phone chips, Qualcomm’s market share rose to 31% last year, and has been leading the global mobile phone chip market for five consecutive years. Samsung took the second place with a 21% share; followed by MediaTek. However, according to Wang Xiang, president of Qualcomm Greater China, Qualcomm’s actual market share is far more than 31%. “We are the only chip manufacturer in the world with the highest-end coverage to the lowest-end product line, providing the best price/performance ratio.”

Qualcomm will not repeat the “high and low” era of functional machine era, and MediaTek will be able to nibble at the low-end market. When Wang Xiang accepted an interview with Nandu yesterday, he repeatedly emphasized that the low-end and middle-end markets are equally important to Qualcomm. Qualcomm insists on introducing high-end products into the mass-market smartphone market. “We provide very competitive prices. Our driving force is to make more people use Qualcomm. Technology." Wang Xiang even said that Qualcomm's current chip prices can be said to be the lowest.

According to sources, Qualcomm's QRD (Qualcomm Reference Design) price is even lower than MediaTek's public version by about 5%. This is also an important reason for Qualcomm’s growth.

Controlling the Third Party Terminal Market through "QRD Program"

According to a recent research report by JPMorgan Chase, global smart phone shipments will increase by 37% in 2013. However, it cannot be overlooked that more and more mobile phone manufacturers, Qualcomm's customers, have also started to increase the development of independent chips to achieve vertical integration of the industry chain. LG recently disclosed that it has been developing 8-core chips; Huawei announced that its high-end products will use Huawei Hass chips in the future. ZTE is also developing mobile operating systems and chips based on proprietary intellectual property rights.

The reporter was informed that QRD is Qualcomm’s smart phone rapid development platform and ecosystem featuring comprehensiveness, integrity and differentiation, which can help third-party terminal manufacturers to launch differentiated masses in less time with lower development costs. Market smart phone. According to Wang Xiang, Qualcomm currently has 170 products based on QRD solutions, and 200 products are under development. These data also show that Qualcomm has control over the market. "This market is very large, each manufacturer has its own strategy to do differentiated products." Wang Xiang said.

Qualcomm's chips are used in Samsung and Apple's important mobile devices, so the company's judgment of market trends is very worthy of attention. CNBC host Jim Cramer pointed out after the interview: “We use smart phones every day, but many people forget that Qualcomm is behind these devices.”