Qualcomm’s move comes soon after rival Chinese chipset brand UniSoc rolled out their own chipsets for India, aimed at powering 5G handsets priced at less than $120.
It also comes at a time when the entry-level segment (sub-$100) has been steadily declining as returning users migrate towards pricier and premium options. Research firm IDC said the segment declined another 14% on-year in the March quarter, commanding only 15% of total volumes, from 20% a year ago.
The new chipset, named Snapdragon 4s Gen 2, brings focus back to the steadily declining entry-level segment where Qualcomm has been playing catch-up with rival MediaTek. The US-based chipmaker’s focus has been on serving the premium segment more in the last few years, riding on the premiumisation wave playing out in the smartphone market globally.
However, in emerging markets like India there still remains a large base of feature phone users (over 340 million according to IDC) which handset brands will be targeting with the help of Qualcomm, experts said.”We design all our technologies in house, so we have the ability to take those and customise it for the entry-tier, which our competitors don’t,” said Chris Patrick, senior vice president and general manager of mobile handsets, Qualcomm Technologies, adding that the company has also worked to bring down manufacturing costs to reach the sub-$100 pricing goal.The company said the new chipset enables smartphone brands to bring down the cost of the printed circuit board (PCB), a crucial component in a mobile phone, along with other components.
“We have gone through every aspect of the BOM (Bill of Materials) and reduced the cost of not just our chipset which itself is a collection of multiple components, we have also focused on the components that go along with the chipset, and things like the PCB cost,” said Deepu John, senior director, product management, Qualcomm.