Qualcomm: smartphone sales will fall more than 10% this year, and Apple will not give up its modems in 2023

In the third quarter Qualcomm managed to increase revenues by 22% to $11.39 billion, but not the most optimistic forecast for the smartphone market caused the company's stock price to decline by 7.56% after the close of trading.
According to this provider of mobile processors, at the end of the current calendar year, the smartphone market will shrink not by 5-6%, but by 10-12%.
Since the beginning of this quarter, the company will also stop hiring new staff.Image source: Qualcomm TechnologiesIn the current quarter, as stated by representatives of Qualcomm, the company's revenue will be in the range of $9.2 to $10 billion, which is a couple of billion dollars below the most modest expectations of analysts.
Apparently, this also contributed to Qualcomm's share price decline after the release of financial statistics.
The company's representatives also noted that a sharp decline in demand and an improvement in the supply of components led to an increase in product inventories.
Qualcomm will have to spend the accumulated surplus products in the warehouses for about a couple more quarters.
The company has been running QCT, which supplies chips for smartphones and other devices that transmit data over wireless channels, and has generated $9.9 billion in revenue last quarter, up 28 percent from the same period last year.
Smartphone chip shipments brought Qualcomm $6.57 billion in revenue last quarter, increasing revenue by 40% over the same quarter last year.
The automotive business grew 58% to $427 million, while the Internet of Things added 24%, giving Qualcomm a core revenue of $1.92 billion.
Finally, radio frequency components dropped 20% to $992 million.Technology licensing and patents brought Qualcomm $1.44 billion last quarter, up 8% from a year earlier, but this revenue line still fell short of analysts' expectations.
The head of the company, Cristiano Amon, acknowledged that Qualcomm cannot stay away from the negative impact of macroeconomic conditions on the entire semiconductor industry.
Operating costs are expected to be reduced not only by suspending the expansion of the staff from October this year, but also by other measures.
Regarding the relationship with customers, it was said that the license agreement with Samsung Electronics has been extended until 2030, and in the next quarter the Korean giant will increase the share of Qualcomm chips in its mobile devices.
Almost all of the iPhones next year will use Qualcomm modems, though the company previously expressed fears that it will not get more than 20% of Apple's orders because it has time to introduce modem solutions of its own design.
In a couple of years, in the opinion of Qualcomm's management, Apple will still be able to almost completely abandon the components of the first brand.
According to the forecasts of Bloomberg, the first smartphones Apple with modem components of its own design will not appear until 2024.

A lawsuit has been filed against Samsung that could negatively affect the entire Android smartphone industry

K.
Mirza LLC, which is essentially a patent troll with licenses from major companies and scientific organizations, has filed a lawsuit against Samsung, accusing the South Korean smartphone maker of using a feature that allows algorithms to predict the remaining battery life of a gadget.
The process could have an impact on the entire Android smartphone industry.Image source: SamsungThe lawsuit was filed on May 20 - indicating that this widely used feature in Android smartphones is actually developed by the Dutch research institute Nederlandse Organisatie voor Togepast Natuurwetenschappelijk Onderzoe (TNO).According to the statement K.
Mirza, the feature provides \"a comprehensive mechanism for real-time prediction of the remaining battery life of a mobile device like a smartphone.
\"The company emphasizes that the prediction is based on algorithms that analyze user behavior.
Estimating the remaining battery life based on an analysis of user behavior is more accurate than predictions based on tests conducted during the development of devices.The lawsuit mentions Samsung's use of the technology with \"earlier versions of the Android OS.
It is likely that a different algorithm is used with newer versions of the OS, so the latest Android devices are probably not affected by the problem.That said, Samsung is not the only company using a similar technology - similar mechanisms are used in Xiaomi smartphones and Google Pixel series models.
It is possible that the lawsuit against Samsung is only a trial balloon, and, if successful, some claims may be made against other smartphone manufacturers.

India will become a new growth point for MediaTek amid a downturn in the Chinese market

IDC analysts said yesterday that smartphone sales could decline by 3.5 percent this year, as the global decline in demand is exacerbated by the corresponding processes in the Chinese market.
MediaTek's representatives are not discouraged in this regard, as they are ready to bet on the Indian electronics market.Image source: MediaTekIn an interview with Bloomberg, Anku Jain, Managing Director of MediaTek in India, said that in the last couple of years the consumption of electronic devices in the local market has increased markedly and in the coming years, this trend should continue.
MediaTek processors dominate the global market in the sub-$200 smartphone segment, in this respect India holds significant growth potential for the Taiwanese processor developer's business.An additional driver for the Indian market is the expansion of cellular networks, which are preparing to move to 5G standards.
In addition to smartphones, TV sets, for which MediaTek also supplies processors, are in stable demand in the local market.
After the pandemic is over, according to a MediaTek spokesperson, demand for electronics in India will continue to grow.
The share of more expensive processors of this brand in the local market will also increase.
Now MediaTek has more than 700 engineers working in its Indian representative office, the company intends to expand the staff of local developers.
Cooperation with Chinese smartphone manufacturers and other partners is actively deepening.
Around 2 billion devices based on MediaTek processors are produced annually all over the world, and the company spends up to a quarter of all revenues on development and research.

MediaTek unveiled 6nm Dimensity 1050, Dimensity 930 and Helio G99 processors for mid-range smartphones

Taiwan-based company MediaTek today unveiled three new mobile processors for mid-range smartphones: Dimensity 1050, Dimensity 930 and Helio G99.
All of the new products are systems-on-chip (SoC) based on a 6nm manufacturing process.
Each chip has received eight computing cores.Image source: corp.mediatek.comMediaTek Dimensity 1050 is a \"lightweight\" version of the Dimensity 1100 model.
However, at the same time, it is the company's first processor capable of connecting to 5G networks in the mmWave 5G and sub-6GHz bands.
The Dimensity 1050 uses two 2.5GHz high-performance Arm Cortex-A78 cores.
What energy efficient cores are used here - the manufacturer does not specify.
Most likely, we are talking about Arm Cortex-A55.
The chip also got a graphics core Arm Mali-610 with support for MediaTek HyperEngine 5.0.
The latter provides additional tools and optimization features to improve performance in games.
The Dimensity 1050 is announced to support UFS 3.1 flash memory, LPDDR5 standard RAM, Full HD+ resolution screens with refresh rate up to 144Hz, and AV1 decoding hardware capabilities.
In addition, the manufacturer notes HDR10+ and Dolby Vision compatibility.
Support for cameras up to 108 megapixels is also indicated.The MediaTek Dimensity 1050 offers 3CC carrier aggregation below 6 GHz (FR1) and 4CC carrier aggregation in the mmWave spectrum (FR2) and is claimed to offer up to 53% higher downlink speeds compared to LTE + mmWave aggregation.
The MediaTek Dimensity 1050 also supports Wi-Fi 6E and 2x2 MIMO antenna for ultra-fast Wi-Fi connectivity.The first devices based on the MediaTek Dimensity 1050 should hit the market between July and September this year.
The situation with the Dimensity 930 is quite strange.
Despite the higher serial number of the chip, the frequency of its cores is lower than that of the previous Dimensity 920 and Dimensity 900 models.
The new processor got two 2.2GHz Cortex-A78 cores and six 2GHz Cortex-A55 cores.
The same Dimensity 900 and Dimensity 920 have 2.4GHz and 2.5GHz high performance cores, respectively.
However, the manufacturer has equipped the Dimensity 930 with a brand new graphics subsystem.
The IMG BXM-8-256 core is used here, which has never been seen in smartphones before.
What it is capable of - still unknown.The company claims for the Dimensity 930 support for UFS 3.1 flash memory and LPDDR5 RAM, cameras with a resolution up to 108 megapixels with the ability to shoot video in 4K resolution at 30 frames per second, support for 5G, Wi-Fi 5, Bluetooth 5.2 and screens with Full HD+ resolution, 120 Hz refresh rate and HDR10+ The Helio G99 platform does not have 5G support.
However, the company has moved the chip to a 6nm process.
The new SoC is more energy efficient than its predecessors based on 12nm process technology.The Helio G99 uses two 2.2GHz Cortex-A76 cores, six 2GHz Cortex-A55 cores and a Mali-G57 MC2 graphics subsystem.
The processor supports UFS 2.2 storage, LPDDR4X memory, 120Hz Full HD+ displays, and Wi-Fi 5 and Bluetooth 5.2 wireless standards.
In addition, support for 108-megapixel cameras is indicated, as well as sets of two 16-megapixel cameras with ZSL.The first Dimensity 930-based devices should be available in the second quarter of this year.
Helio G99-based smartphones will make their market debut in the third quarter.

A 200-megapixel camera is being developed for the Samsung Galaxy S23

Over the past two years, the resolution of the main camera module of the flagship smartphones Samsung Galaxy remains at 108 megapixels, but if we believe Korean sources, next year with the release of the Galaxy S23 Ultra, things could shift from the dead point, as the smartphone will debut a 200-megapixel camera on board.
Source image: Sasmung Electro-MechanicsIn accordance with Business Korea, the structure of the Korean conglomerate for the development of camera modules are responsible for two competing structures: Samsung Electronics and Samsung Electro-Mechanics.
The first has about 30% of the production program, while the second controls 70% of the volume of specialized products.
Characteristically, the 200-megapixel module for the new flagship was first developed by Samsung Electronics.
It is not certain that a camera with such characteristics will get to the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra smartphone, but the technical conditions for this have already been created.This fall, Apple will present a family of smartphones iPhone 14 with upgraded cameras, which is expected to prompt Samsung Electronics to retaliate.
Early next year, the Korean giant may decide to release the flagship smartphone Galaxy S23 Ultra with a 200-megapixel camera, for the first time in four years seriously upgrading the characteristics of such devices in this part.