Samsung next flagship smartphone probably Galaxy S6 likely to run on QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM)’s new Snapdragon 810 chipset despite earlier concerns that the current chip causes overheating problems in phones. Bloomberg had earlier reported that the giant smartphone maker was thinking of doing away with Qualcomm’s chip because of the malfunction.
LG’s Defense
Despite Bloomberg raising the overheating concerns, LG through its vice president, Woo Ram Cham, has stated the chip’s performance remains satisfactory at all measures. Woo has defended the chip reiterating that tests carried out on it show it emits less heat compared to the previous models.
Wall Street Journal now reports that it is not clear whether the upgraded version of the chip will arrive in time to power the smartphone. If, by any chance, the chip does not arrive in time, Samsung will reportedly resort to using its own chipset. The industry now closely waits to see when the Korean hardware maker will announce its next flagship handset with all signs pointing to the upcoming World Congress trade show sometimes in March.
Loss of Revenue
Snapdragon 810 remains part of QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM) sales plan for the year with higher expectations that he chipset will be ready to power more higher-end smartphones than in the past. The chipset currently powers Xiaomi’s Mi Note Pro phablet as well as LG’s G Flex 2. It would be a major blow for the giant chipmaker if it were to be stripped of its right to power Samsung’s devices.
QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM)’s reputation could be severely damaged if it is cut from any partnership with Samsung; a move that would translate to lost unit sales. Samsung remains the world leader in volumes sales and is Qualcomm’s second largest customer.
Samsung had in the past relied on its Exynos processor to power a variant of its products especially in the home market. Samsung’s need to integrate LTE modems with its application processor especially for U.S markets, so it opt for QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM) chips that perfectly suited the job.
