Qualcomm Enhances Snapdragon Processors - Analyst Blog

The world's largest mobile chipset developer, Qualcomm Incorporated QCOM, revealed that it is working toward improving the performance of its high-end Snapdragon processors. Also, smartphones integrated with the latest Snapdragon 808 and 810 processors will be available from early 2015.

The modern processors, Snapdragon 808 and 810 are aimed at providing download speeds of up to 300 megabits per second, high-definition images, 4K video recording support and ultra-high resolution playback. Both the chips are powered with 64-bit computing capacity.

Nevertheless, the 64-bit chipset is not new in the industry as Apple Inc. AAPL had launched an iPhone with a 64-bit processor last year. Notably, Intel Corp. INTC is the market leader in 64-bit chipsets for PCs and laptops.

We believe that the introduction of Snapdragon 808 and 810 processors will help the San Diego-based company to safeguard its position against rivals like Intel, MediaTek Inc. and NVIDIA Corporation NVDA and will also drive demand for its chipset. Qualcomm has fortified its leadership position in the high-end smartphone segment. The company is the major chipset provider to Apple and Samsung, which together constitute 40% of the smartphone and 50% of the tablet markets globally.

Notably, the acquisition of Atheros Communications has transformed Qualcomm into an integrated chipset developer in the mobile computing market. Qualcomm can play as a single window to any wireless gadget maker (mobile phone/tablets) for an integrated Snapdragon chipset platform supporting Wi-Fi.

Recently, Qualcomm announced that the “Fire TV” set-top box launched by Amazon.com Inc. runs on Qualcomm's next-generation quad-core Snapdragon 600 microprocessor. The microprocessor is integrated with 1.7GHz quad-core Qualcomm Krait 300 and Qualcomm Adreno 320 GPU.

Currently, Qualcomm carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). We believe that the long-term fundamentals of Qualcomm remain intriguing given the steadily growing demand for 4G LTE-enabled mobile handsets in developed countries, rapid transition from 2G to 3G/4G in China and other emerging markets and increasing licensing revenues.