As chip major Qualcomm aims to go beyond serving the global smartphone industry to cater to a bigger device ecosystem, the company's over 17,000-strong India workforce is helping it realise the dream to become a connected chip powerhouse, according to top executives.
With centres in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai and Noida, the India R&D operation is the company's largest outside of its US-based headquarters.
Ziad Asghar, Vice President, Product Management, Qualcomm Technologies, told IANS that India is a sweet spot for them to transition from a wireless communications company for the mobile industry to a connected processor company for the intelligent edge.
"India R&D teams are busy working towards our goal to enter and lead new device territories beyond smartphones. We have some of the brightest people working on new technologies, especially at the Bengaluru and Hyderabad centres, giving our vision a concrete shape," Asghar informed.
Qualcomm has large teams across hardware and software engineering in India, including 5G and augmented and virtual reality.
The company has placed a big bet on the Extended Reality (XR) market, showcasing new technologies at its 'Snapdragon Summit 2022' to power future smart glasses, AR/VR headsets, laptops, tablets, wearables and hearables, among others.
The Qualcomm Snapdragon mobile platform was developed with the help of various R&D teams in India, and XR is just at the beginning of its growth curve.
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According to Dr. Vinesh Sukumar, Senior Director - Head of AI/ML Product Management at Qualcomm, India has always been a growth market for Qualcomm.
"We have always been very bullish on the Indian market and the abundance of talent in the country. Qualcomm is putting a lot of investment and research at its India centres, in the field of artificial intelligence and machine learning, to refine user experiences across gaming, XR, automotive and more," said Sukumar.
Cristiano Amon, President and CEO of Qualcomm, recently said that the company continues to be a leading platform provider for virtually all commercially available and announced XR devices and remain well-positioned as XR develops.
Prabhu Ram, Head-Industry Intelligence Group (IIG), CMR, told IANS that by leveraging its strong, in-house AI across the board, Qualcomm has been able to enable intelligent experiences through Snapdragon for the digitally accelerated world, across industries, going far beyond mobile.
"At the core of Qualcomm's transformation into a strong platform company for the intelligent edge, is its in-house R&D talent - including, for instance, in Bengaluru and Hyderabad," Ram noted.
Qualcomm says focused on long-term goals amid market uncertainties
Despite several quarters of declining smartphone sales owing to rough macroeconomic conditions, chip major Qualcomm is confident it will weather the global condition with a strong focus on long-term growth, while delivering top-of-the-line features for the overall device ecosystem.
Chris Patrick, SVP and General Manager, Mobile Handset, Qualcomm, told IANS that despite a lot of ups and downs in the global market, the company is "really focused on the long term".
"Smartphone is the most indispensable device in our lives and we make sure we have the right mix of products for our customers for the long term. Structurally, we don't see anything really different in the current global scenario for our business," Patrick said on the sidelines of the company's flagship 'Snapdragon Summit 2022' here.
"We are witnessing the same demand for devices and the same kind of demand for advanced features," he added.
Qualcomm caters to a premium set of smartphones for most of the major smartphone players globally.
According to the International Data Corporation (IDC), worldwide smartphone shipments declined 9.7 per cent (year-over-year) to 301.9 million units in the third quarter this year.
The drop marked the largest-ever third quarter decline and the fifth consecutive quarter of decline for the smartphone market as shipments continue to struggle amid weakened global demand and economic uncertainties, said the IDC report.
According to Patrick, some original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) are facing the problem, especially those who "hit the accelerator maybe a little bit too hard".
"We are focusing very hard to provide optimum, next-generation features to our customers across the spectrum, be it gaming, camera, AI and the overall device performance. We've taken a big leap on delivering peak performance and we expect OEMs to have an easier time making a balance," Patrick told IANS.
In the latest Qualcomm quarterly results earlier this month, Cristiano Amon, President and CEO, said that the semiconductor industry is being impacted by significant macroeconomic headwinds and other short-term challenges from which "we're not immune.
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However, "the fundamentals of Qualcomm's growth drivers remain unchanged with significant opportunities in the coming years," Amon mentioned.
In handsets, the company recently entered into a new multi-year agreement with Samsung, expanding the use of Snapdragon platforms for future premium Samsung Galaxy products globally.
"We also executed on the changing OEM landscape opportunity, securing key premium and high-tier design wins with our customers in China. Snapdragon has become synonymous with premium mobile experiences worldwide," said Amon.
