"Qualcomm and Samsung Electronics are designing products like a single team. From now, we are thinking together about products three years out. Cooperation with Korean corporations will expand from mobile to robots."
At the Snapdragon Media Day held on the 20th at the JW Marriott Hotel in Seocho-gu, Seoul, Senior Vice President and Head of the Mobile Handset Division Chris Patrick said this. That day, Qualcomm unveiled its Snapdragon platform business, an application processor (AP) series that serves as the brain of smartphones. The event was attended by Kim Sang-pyo, president of Qualcomm Korea, Vice President of Product Management Nitin Kumar, and Don McGuire, senior vice president and chief marketing officer.
Qualcomm is a powerhouse in APs for premium smartphones. It supplies in large volume the APs that go into the Samsung Electronics Galaxy S series. At one point, Exynos, an AP designed by the Samsung Electronics System LSI Division, failed to make it into the Galaxy because of poor Production yield in design and foundry (contract chip manufacturing) processes, and Qualcomm APs were used exclusively.
Vice President Patrick said, "To maximize Samsung's display and camera performance, close optimization with Qualcomm's system on a chip (SoC) is essential," adding that 'for Galaxy' is the result of the (Qualcomm and Samsung Electronics) partnership, emphasizing cooperation with Samsung Electronics.
Vice President Patrick said the company would solidify its market position based on "co-design" with clients. He said, "As in the past, a method where Samsung Electronics designs the smartphone and Qualcomm designs the chip separately and then combines them is no longer possible," and "For each generation of technology, we had to collaborate deeply for years based on co-design."
Qualcomm said it will target the market by putting forward central processing units (CPUs) specialized for Android devices. Vice President Patrick said, "We are virtually the only company in the Android ecosystem with a custom CPU," adding, "We implemented optimization from the design stage to maximize the user experience, going beyond off-the-shelf CPU designs."
Cooperation between Samsung Electronics and Qualcomm appears set to expand into the Robotics industry. Qualcomm has launched the custom processors "Dragonwing IQ 10" series and "IQX" industrial PC products aimed at the robot market. Samsung Electronics is preparing to enter the robot market through its subsidiary Rainbow Robotics.
Kim Sang-pyo, president of Qualcomm Korea, said, "The Qualcomm Dragonwing platform, with its high-performance and low-power characteristics, is in an active promotion phase in the Internet of Things (IoT) and Robotics fields," adding, "We are talking not only with Samsung Electronics but also with a variety of domestic companies, and we plan to expand the business with clear goals set through 2029, putting all our capabilities into it."
Meanwhile, Qualcomm said it would win over consumers not only by leading on technical metrics but also in user experience. Vice President Don McGuire said, "Snapdragon is not a chip for simple spec competition but one designed for user experience," adding, "This approach is what draws preferences from Android consumers worldwide."
He then said, Vice President McGuire said, "About 61% of Korean consumers perceive Snapdragon as the standard for premium Android experiences," adding, "Within the premium tier, preference is up to six times higher than competing brands." He added, "The domestic Insiders community numbers 340,000, and they are six times more likely to purchase and seven times more likely to recommend than general consumers."