Qualcomm can beat Apple’s M1 chip, says the company’s CEO, for one good reason: It has a team of chip architects who formerly worked on Apple Silicon. This includes former A-series chip lead Gerard Williams.
You may recall Apple was so upset at Williams leaving the company that it sued him, accusing him of exploiting Apple tech and poaching other key engineers…
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Nvidia announced last fall that it was officially starting the process of acquiring Arm Holdings from SoftBank for $40 billion. In the months since we’ve seen concerns from competitors and the deal hasn’t yet been approved or shut down by regulators. Now Qualcomm has shared that if the sale to Nvidia is blocked, it and others would invest in Arm.
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Qualcomm announced today that it has completed its acquisition of Nuvia, a startup founded in 2019 by three former engineers from Apple’s silicon team. The deal is worth $1.4 billion, and it will bolster Qualcomm’s efforts to compete with Apple Silicon and create custom-designed CPUs.
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UK iPhone owners could be in line for a payout from Qualcomm, if legal action by a major British consumer association succeeds. Each owner of an iPhone or Samsung smartphone bought since the beginning of October 2015 could receive around £30 ($42).
Qualcomm is accused of abusing its dominant position in the modem chip business to overcharge Apple and Samsung, which then passed costs on to consumers…
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Back in September, Nvidia confirmed that it was going to move forward with the process of acquiring Arm Holdings from SoftBank for $40 billion. However, with regulators around the world looking into the deal, it’s surfaced that Qualcomm has been vocal with authorities about its objection to the acquisition.
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US chipmakers sent a letter to President Biden this morning with an urgent request to make a serious investment for semiconductor manufacturing a part of his economic recovery plan. Intel and Qualcomm along with others made the case for the government to incentivize chip production in the US.
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At CES 2021 today, Qualcomm unveiled a new in-screen fingerprint sensor that it says is 50% faster and 77% larger than its previous technology. The new Qualcomm 3D Sonic Sensor Gen 2 is expected to find its way to high-end Android flagships this year, and it comes as Apple works to bring Touch ID back to the iPhone.
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A new report today says that Apple will be responsible for more than half of all 5nm chips made this year, and that Samsung will be in a distant third place at around 5% of the latest smaller-process chips. The A14 chip was Apple’s first use of a 5nm process.
Apple will also be in large part responsible for Qualcomm coming in second, at around a quarter of the likely production …
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Qualcomm has officially showcased benchmarks for its new flagship Snapdragon 888 processor, which is expected to power top-of-the-line Android devices in 2021. The benchmarks, while respectable, show that the Snapdragon 888 lags behind Apple’s A13 and A14 processors.
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A new report on how the global chip makers stacked up for Q3 suggests that Qualcomm likely has the iPhone 12 to thank for solid growth and taking the number one spot with almost $5 billion in quarterly revenue. That almost a 40% increase from Qualcomm’s 2019 Q3. However, Apple’s work on an in-house modem is a reminder of the looming hit to Qualcomm’s revenue in the future.
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Qualcomm today reported its earnings for the fourth quarter of 2020, which drove the company’s stock price higher tonight. This comes after the company introduced its 5G modems on several smartphones recently, including the iPhone 12 lineup.
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Last year, not too long after Apple abruptly settled its long-running lawsuit with Qualcomm, the chipmaker was hit with a ruling that its business practices were anticompetitive in a case brought by the Federal Trade Commission. After a year-long period to appeal that decision, Qualcomm today has won its bid to reverse that ruling.
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Qualcomm has announced its next-gen wireless chips that support the new Wi-Fi 6E standard. The “E” in Wi-Fi 6E stands for “extended” and supported devices will be able to operate on the newly opened 6GHz spectrum that should offer less network congestion and faster and more dependable connections.
In a new interview with Bloomberg today, Qualcomm CEO Steve Mollenkopf touched on the company’s evolving relationship with Apple. Following the bitter legal battle between the two companies, Mollenkopf says things feel “much more natural now.”
Qualcomm reported its fiscal Q2 2020 earnings today, announcing revenue of $5.21 billion and earnings-per-share of $0.88. Both of those numbers are above Wall Street expectations, but Qualcomm also predicted a forthcoming 30% drop in handset shipments.
Originally slated to share the news at MWC which was canceled due to coronavirus, Qualcomm held its “What’s Next in 5G” event today in its hometown of San Diego. At the event, the company highlighted its new 3rd-gen 5G X60 modem with the capacity for super-fast download and upload speeds. Qualcomm announced it is testing the X60 with partners this quarter, could the iPhone 12 lineup that will arrive this fall feature the new chips?
After settling its legal fight with Qualcomm last year and securing a 5G chip supply for its 2020 iPhones, things seemed to be looking up for Apple bringing the next-gen cellular standard to its iPhone 12 lineup. However, a new report today says that Apple isn’t satisfied with Qualcomm’s antenna designed to work with its 5G chips and that it may make its own… for this fall’s iPhones.
After agreeing to end a messy legal battle earlier this year, Qualcomm and Apple are now working closely on bringing 5G capabilities to the iPhone. Speaking at the company’s Snapdragon Tech Summit today, Qualcomm President Cristiano Amon emphasized that the relationship with Apple is currently “priority number one.”
Qualcomm reported its fiscal Q4 2019 earnings today and provided guidance for the fiscal first quarter of 2020. Following the chipmaker’s settlement with Apple, it continues to report strong numbers and remains bullish on the upcoming expansion of 5G.
While rival smartphones may tease Apple over launching a non 5G iPhone as its flagship this year, the reality is that there is so little coverage as yet that it’s almost irrelevant.
Waiting a year also enables Apple to benefit from two upcoming developments in 5G chips…
The Department of Justice is arguing that the Qualcomm antitrust ruling back in May poses a threat to national security. It is calling for the remedies issued by the court to be put on hold pending an appeal.
Although Apple settled its civil lawsuit against Qualcomm, the exact same evidence put forward for that case was earlier used by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to take the radio chipmaker to court — with judgement awarded against Qualcomm …
The Qualcomm antitrust ruling may well be reversed on appeal, say some legal experts, who think the chipmaker has ‘strong arguments’ on its side.
Qualcomm’s legal showdown with Apple may have fizzled out, but a separate case did go the distance. Earlier this month, the company lost a case brought by the FTC, and was ordered to renegotiate its licensing terms with smartphone makers.
However, that decision was based on a fairly obscure precedent involving a ski company, and some experts think it likely to be reversed …
Update: Qualcomm unsurprisingly disagrees with the judgement and will be appealing the ruling to the US Court of Appeals 9th Circuit. Original story below.
Judge Koh has filed her ruling on the FTC antitrust suit against Qualcomm, and it comprehensively concludes that Qualcomm business practices were anticompetitive as reported by FOSSPatents.
Qualcomm has been ordered to renegotiate existing licensing terms such that its supply of modem chips is wholly separate to any patent licensing agreement. It cannot enter exclusivity supply agreements and it must license standards-essential patents at fair and reasonable rates.
Various Qualcomm executives have received bonuses for settling the company’s legal battle with Apple. As first noted by CNBC, the bonuses were revealed in an SEC filing, with CEO Steve Mollenkopf taking home the biggest bonus.