Qualcomm: The Unseen Power Behind Apple and Samsung

Till now you guys would must have heard of the news of Apple extending its modem deal with Qualcomm till March 2027 and Samsung too extending its deal with Qualcomm for its Samsung Flagship devices for further more years.

If you don’t know then let me tell you, it’s Qualcomm who supplies radio frequency modems for apple device and its Qualcomm only who provides Snapdragon for Galaxy chipsets for Samsung Flagship devices .

But do you know both Samsung and Apple had tried hard to ditch Qualcomm,and failed badly? But Qualcomm got its lifeline back from their failures.

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Qualcomm’s Dependency on Apple and Samsung

Qualcomm relied heavily on Apple and Samsung for its business ,Its strange but true that one time Samsung and Apple accounted for about 70% of Qualcomm Sales ,in which Apple was more dominant accounting for about 1/3 rd of Qualcomm sales.

To reduce its dependency on Qualcomm both Apple and Samsung had their plans ready ,and if their plan would have got succeeded then it would have given a big blow to Qualcomm ,but eventually they failed at least till now and Qualcomm got back some time to expand its portfolio business.

We have covered a whole detailed article on How Qualcomm is expanding its portfolio base so that it can thrive in this cutthroat market, you can give it a read right now or read at the last, I will attach the link at last also.

Let us get back to our story and try to cover both Apple and Samsung cunny mind separately.

Apple and Samsung Failed Attempts to Ditch Qualcomm

Apple’s Plan to Cut Ties with Qualcomm

Let’s start with Apple since it has planned to give the biggest blow to Qualcomm.

It dates back to 2019 when Apple had announced its mind to invest in Intel’s modem business, Apple had said that it will invest somewhat $ 1Bn in Intel’s modem business, by that time Apple contributed about 33% of Qualcomm sales and it had some fear that Apple is trying to ditch Qualcomm but Apple denied the claims. But for Qualcomm, it was a major blow when Apple announced its acquisition of Intel’s modem business, By this time Apple contributed to about 21 % of Qualcomm sales.

Looks like Qualcomm has some doubt in mind and by this time it has started to reduce it dependency on Apple😅😅.

Let’s not get deviated.

So yes just after its Intel modem business acquisition announcement, Apple announced that it is determined to cut off its ties with Qualcomm and will completely cut off Qualcomm by 2024 and will make its Radio frequency(R.F) chips.

And you know what ,they were on the right path while making their own chips and even they had announced that they will be releasing their first radio frequency modem in their low end iPhone Model iPhone SE. Even to speed up the process they had partnered with Broadcomm. But It’s said na Things don’t always go by plan .By end of 2023 Apple announced that they are still working on their rf chips and will be able to ship their first RF Chips by end of 2025 or early 2026 only.

So, it was Apple’s Story.

Samsung’s Attempt to Break Free from Qualcomm

Now Let’s now go to Samy(Samsung)

So Samsung is well known for its Evil Exynos chipsets.

But For your knowledge let me tell you Exynos have a proud history since its launch in 2010 ,it was by 2020 that they were being criticised by the competitors as by then Qualcomm had advanced too much. BTW for studying the whole Exynos history you can click here.

So, Samsung was already not much into Qualcomm’s business, as they were making their chipsets and they were quite powerful also, and their powerful nature was posing a threat to Qualcomm chipset business and Samsung had already started competing Qualcomm.

But things started to change by 2020 ,as Qualcomm started making more powerful processors and Exynos had got a whole new heating issues ,they used to heat up quite quickly and also used to throttle the performance.So Samsung decided to go by Qualcomm for its high end Galaxy phones but behind they were working on their Exynos chipsets also and also it was in news that Samsung will be using its inhouse processors i.e Exynos ones in their 2024 flagships,i.e in their S 24 series but it turned out as partially true and Samsung announced that they have extended the multi-billion deal for next more few years and again Qualcomm got saved at least for few more years.

Samsung: The Savior of Qualcomm

If we analyze then you will observe that Samsung came as a reviver for Qualcomm when Apple was trying to break its tie with Qualcomm, but they were indeed working on breaking their partnership with Qualcomm but their plans didn’t work out….

So, this was the end of the story, As promised here is the link to Qualcomm’s expanding business.

Give it a read and until then keep WIreUnwiring, and yes you can also join our WhatsApp community to remain more connected.

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