Samsung and Qualcomm have enjoyed success together in the past with Qualcomm Snapdragons being used by Samsung in almost every major device. However, Samsung has decided to put an end to this partnership. According to some reports, it looks like Samsung is ready to exclude Qualcomm processors for the Galaxy S6 in favour of its own chipset.
Reportedly, problems arose when the Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 chipsets overheated repeatedly during testing of the Galaxy S6. Also, Samsung has recently gave out signals that it doesn’t want to rely on other companies with the launch of Tizen powered smartphones, which is Samsung’s homegrown operating system. The reports further states that Samsung had plans to invest about $15 billion in a chip making facility near Seoul. Samsung currently markets its processors under the “Exynos” brand.
Qualcomm not only develops chipsets having CPU cores, graphics cores, RAM and so on, but has also integrated its modems within the chipset. Samsung Exynos chips on the other hand require an external modem to be added on. Snapdragon Processors by Qualcomm are used in a majority of Android and mobile devices so it will be interesting to see how Samsung’s own chip fares against them. This move may also be seen as a cost cutting measure by Samsung if it manages to keep production costs lower than the amount it pays to Qualcomm for its Snapdragon chips. Samsung is the second largest customer of Qualcomm, making up about 12 percent of Qualcomm sales. It would be interesting to see if Samsung completely drops Qualcomm in the future.
This could be a major setback to Qualcomm, which would lose a high profile customer in Samsung. This could also make it harder for Qualcomm to sell the new 810 chip, which was made for use in high-end mobile devices. So far, the Snapdragon 810 is included in G Flex 2 and Xiaomi Mi Note Pro smartphones. The Galaxy S6 is expected to be unveiled at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
