2020 will be the year of "scaling up", according to Qualcomm

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Qualcomm holds its annual conference, the Snapdragon Tech Summit, December 3-5, 2019. An opportunity for the mobile chip designer to take stock of its 5G strategy. "2020 will be the year of scaling up for 5G"said on stage Cristiano Amon, president of Qualcomm. The company anticipates a rapid expansion of the commercialization of 5G compatible smartphones around the world next year, especially in France.

An integrated 5G modem for a new mid-range chip

The spearhead of this explosion must be the Snapdragon 765 chip (and its 765G variant, which has better GPU performance for games). It will be equipped with an integrated 4G / 5G modem, called X52. We note that this is a mid-range chip, the real highlight is the Snapdragon 865, which continues to rely on the external modem X55. But these chips "middle to high end" equip just the majority of smartphones sold. As for the 865, Qualcomm has good reason to have kept an external modem, including a maximum bandwidth twice as high.

The millimeter waves, yes … but not in France

Qualcomm highlights several of its technological innovations present in these chips, starting with the compatibility not only with Sub-6 GHz frequencies, but also with millimeter waves. It is this combination of tapes that represents the company's "true" 5G, something that it alone can master today. However, we note that France is only concerned with the sub-6 GHz, which weakens a little the communication of the company.

The millimeter waves are used only United States for the time being and will remain out of reach in many markets, including most of the European Union. Other technologies also "essential to the transition to 5G" were also highlighted, such as dynamic frequency sharing (DSS), which allows the same antenna to transmit on both 4G and 5G devices. Just like the support of 5G standalone (SA) and non-standalone (NSA) infrastructures on the same chip, which guarantees that the devices will remain usable in the long term, Qualcomm sees a competitive advantage over the competition (Huawei, MediaTek …).

1.4 billion 5G smartphones sold by 2022

Smartphone makers are at the rendezvous: the Chinese Xiaomi and Oppo have announced phones based on the Snapdragon 865, while HMD Global (which operates the Nokia brand) and Motorola will benefit from the 765. Others are expected to follow early 2020 In total, Qualcomm's partners have more than 230 5G devices under development or already on the market. The company estimates that 1.4 billion 5G smartphones will have been sold in total by 2022, this figure rising to 2.8 billion by 2025.

Another announcement: two modular platforms based on Snapdragon 865 and 765. According to Qualcomm, their goal is to give manufacturers of electronic devices (smartphones or smart health connected objects) greater granularity in the implementation of these components, while reducing development costs and improving time-to-market. Two telecom operators have already supported the initiative: Verizon and Vodafone.

Julien Bergounhoux

 @JBergounhoux 

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