Although Qualcomm does not produce mobile phones, most mobile phone manufacturers in the world are using Qualcomm's Opteron processor. Once Qualcomm makes his own mobile phone, it is equivalent to competing with his downstream customers and turning them into competitors. This will only shake his own foundation, and Qualcomm is obviously not stupid enough to do so.
As a very powerful communication company, Qualcomm's main profit comes from selling chips and licensing patents. When mobile phone manufacturers buy Qualcomm chips, they need to pay not only the chip price, but also the patent fee, that is, for every mobile phone sold, they need to pay Qualcomm 3% ~ 5% of the price of the mobile phone as a patent licensing fee, which is more favorable than Apple. So Qualcomm doesn't need to make a mobile phone at all, just lie down and earn money.
The so-called profession has specialization. Although Qualcomm is good at making mobile phone chips, it may not be able to make smart phones that sell well all over the world. Just like Google's mobile phone, although it has the advantages of native Android, it can only be ranked as "other" in the global market share, so Qualcomm will not offend customers in order to be a "coolie" of mobile phone.
In a word, mobile phones are not produced in Qualcomm. Mobile phone manufacturers all over the world are friends. Once they make mobile phones, customers will become enemies. In addition, Qualcomm's profit is more stable than making mobile phones, so there is no need to make their own mobile phones.
In fact, Qualcomm also produced mobile phones in the early days, but due to factors such as profit margin and product promotion, Qualcomm chose to give up the mobile phone department according to his own understanding of its business model and keep the direction with the highest profit margin, just like IBM resold the personal computer business in that year.
Huawei is different from Qualcomm. Huawei is positioned as a manufacturer of communication ICT solutions, providing end-to-end products and solutions, so it has full product line capabilities.
Therefore, it is not only the semiconductor business (which can be understood as only doing processors), but also the patent authorization of Qualcomm, because for Qualcomm, these two businesses are what Qualcomm is best at, which is in line with Qualcomm's business model (the highest input-output ratio); Meanwhile, Qualcomm used to make mobile phones, but now it doesn't. The reason is also: low cost performance.
If you have used a mobile phone, you must have used Qualcomm products; If there is a company that you have never seen its products, but you have to pay all the time, it must be Qualcomm; If the mobile communication industry is the most inseparable company, then it may only be Qualcomm; If the communication industry is the most "love-hate" company, then it may only be Qualcomm; If the communication industry needs to deal with the issue of "suing the defendant" and consider the companies that go to court as a whole, then Qualcomm is the only one! This is Qualcomm, an American company that combines "love and hate".
Qualcomm has a history of more than 30 years. 1985 in July, seven industry veterans gathered at Dr. Irving Jacobs' home in San Diego to discuss an idea. They hope to establish "high-quality communication" and outline a plan that has developed into one of the greatest start-ups in the telecommunications industry: Qualcomm, headquartered in San Diego, California.
Qualcomm took the lead in developing a new wireless transmission technology called Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA). The success of telephone based on CDMA technology and the potential of high-speed wireless data service based on this technology make Qualcomm one of the hottest communication companies in the world, and it has always maintained its advantages in the field of mobile communication. A brief history of Qualcomm:
Qualcomm is one of the largest semiconductor and telecommunication equipment companies, designing and selling wireless telecommunication products and services. Most of its revenue comes from chip manufacturing and most of its profits come from patent licensing business. QCT (Qualcomm Semiconductor Business Technology) earns revenue by selling products and services (mainly chipsets) for the wireless telecommunications industry; QTL (Qualcomm Technology Licensing Business) controls the patent licensing business and holds almost all patents in Qualcomm. Chipsets based on ARM architecture produced in Qualcomm are purchased by most major smartphone manufacturers, such as Apple, Samsung, Huawei, Xiaomi and Samsung. These mobile phone manufacturers use Qualcomm's technology and operate on networks based on these technologies, so they need to pay a certain percentage of "patent license fees".
Historically, Qualcomm's chip business has generated much more revenue than its wireless technology licensing business. After all, selling application processors and related components in smartphones may bring the company $20 in revenue.
On the other hand, Qualcomm's licensing business is usually more profitable than chip business. From the perspective of operating profit rate, this is correct. In other words, the dollar percentage of each income converted from QTL to operating income is much higher than that of QCT (from the perspective of original operating profit).
In short, royalty checks are almost a pure profit, no money business.
Unlike Samsung or Apple, Qualcomm is not a household name. But this is often mentioned in our news, especially when a new Android phone is released, Qualcomm's name will definitely be mentioned, because the company is a mainstream SoC solution provider-powerful chips appear in many smart phone models such as Xiaomi, Samsung, Vivo and even Huawei.
In its 30-year history, Qualcomm has not only developed mobile device chips, but also developed more products. In fact, it used to own its own mobile phone products and once sold well in the mobile phone market. Qualcomm PDQ is a representative one among many mobile phone models. Published in 1998, it is the world's first commercial CDMA smartphone. In addition, Qualcomm also produces satellite phones.
Qualcomm PDQ smart phone was also called "flagship machine" at that time, which was a miracle of technology. It uses a flip keyboard design and is equipped with a 160 X 240 pixel LCD screen. Users can access their email anytime, anywhere, browse some contents of the network at the speed of 14.4Kbps, and run Palm OS applications, such as Tetris. Can provide 150 minutes of talk time. Gizmo's processor runs at 16MHz, and its memory is 2MB. Qualcomm's PDQ weighs 9.8 ounces and costs $800. Are these performances worse than those in flagship machine now? I can't bear to look directly at it, but at that time, it represented the most advanced technical level.
More competition, greater pressure and lower profitability; At the same time, in order to avoid the concerns of other manufacturers, Qualcomm selectively abandoned the mobile sector and stopped producing mobile phones.
Qualcomm has successfully developed and obtained a number of patents such as CDMA technology for mobile systems and put them on the market; However, other suppliers who have signed patent agreements with Qualcomm lag behind the development of this technology, so Qualcomm has the expertise and chipset to enter the mobile phone market first. Through the cooperation with Sony, Qualcomm is the only supplier of CDMA mobile phones, and it has a good time.
However, the mobile sector in Qualcomm did not last long. Because this is not the company's main direction, Qualcomm's mobile sector has never been developed. The scale is too small, and the pressure of increasing commercial competition and cost makes it impossible for Qualcomm mobile phones to compete effectively with bigger competitors such as Nokia, Motorola and Ericsson, the three largest mobile phone manufacturers in the world. As the Wall Street Journal commented: "Their mobile phone production efficiency is far from what people think. At the same time, the market is shifting to favor only the largest and largest manufacturers. " At the same time, the fierce competition from Korean sellers, the integration of wireless service providers and the shortage of telephone parts led to the disappearance of Qualcomm's mobile sector. In 1990s, with the popularity of Nokia and Motorola products, Qualcomm's mobile sector began to lose money and was eventually sold to Japanese company Kyocera.
There is great competition and pressure. Why didn't Qualcomm increase its investment? The Wall Street Journal also said, "But Qualcomm did train his opponents in the most profitable areas." What does this mean?
As mentioned earlier, Qualcomm has many patents, such as CDMA technology, but other suppliers who have signed patent agreements with Qualcomm lag behind the development of this technology. As Qualcomm pointed out in a document of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), it believes that it has obvious advantages over other existing and potential CDMA ASIC manufacturers. For example, the fifth-generation ASIC chipset of CDMA mobile phone (data rate greater than 64 kb per second) introduced by Qualcomm was for personal use, but no commercial CDMA chipset entered the market, so other manufacturers had to wait, resulting in a time lag, so Qualcomm gained an unequal advantage. Therefore, selling mobile phones will clear the way for Qualcomm to sell ASIC chipsets to other mobile phone suppliers. "Because Qualcomm sells ASIC to its mobile phone competitors, people are skeptical about any competitive measures taken by the company in the mobile phone business," said industry analysts. "As Qualcomm faces more competition in the ASIC field, they may need to remove any obstacles to becoming a supplier in this field."
The sale of ASIC enabled Qualcomm to make more profits, so Qualcomm finally decided to sell the mobile department instead of making mobile phones.
Qualcomm will lose money selling mobile phones, but Qualcomm can make more profits by simply manufacturing semiconductors and authorizing others to use its technology. So far, Qualcomm has made money by selling CDMA chip sets to several mobile phone manufacturers, and at the same time, it has also collected patent fees from mobile phone and chip manufacturers who have authorized their technology to produce their own products. After selling its mobile division in Qualcomm, the rest continued to promote the progress of the wireless industry through its chips and technologies, which cleared the way for the company to focus on more profitable business. By 2007, the company has become the world's leading supplier of mobile chipsets.
Qualcomm has always been proud of its business model and thinks that it is on the road to struggle for it. So far, the same is true. Qualcomm's profitability and unique business model make it always at the forefront of the mobile communication field. At present, Qualcomm is mainly engaged in 5G and artificial intelligence chips, but it has a large number of patents, exceeding 6.5438+0.3 million, and authorization accounts for more than half of its operating income.
It is no accident that Qualcomm chose the right route and cut off the business with low cost performance without hesitation.
The above is my superficial view, welcome to correct me, thank you!
Invited to answer questions in this industry.
Qualcomm's main business now, which also brings him the biggest income, comes from the sales of processors and patents, and does not produce mobile phones. However, in fact, early Qualcomm produced mobile phones.
Speaking of Qualcomm, CDMA is indispensable.
1G era, the so-called "mobile" era, was the victory of the American system at that time. With the success of the standard, the equipment manufacturers who support the standard will gain huge economic benefits. In the era of 1G, Motorola of the United States became the biggest winner.
In the era of 1G, the power of European communication industry is too scattered. There are many 1G standards in Europe, and each country is cultivating and developing its own supporting standards. At the end of the 1G era, the communication giants of European countries sat together and decided to develop a universal mobile communication system in Europe, which is also known as GSM.
GSM is a technology based on TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access) and FDMA (Frequency Division Multiple Access). At that time, the communication industry was more optimistic about TDMA.
CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) was originally a technology used by the military. Later, the US military granted the patent to Qualcomm, and Qualcomm began to develop communication technology based on CDMA. However, at the beginning, the communication industry in the United States was not optimistic about this technology. For Qualcomm, this is a good thing, but it is also a bad thing. On the bright side, few people pay attention to CDMA, so Qualcomm almost monopolized the patent of CDMA system through its own research and development and the low prices of some companies, which is also very rare in the history of communication industry.
The United States has been showing and lobbying its CDMA to the entire American communications industry and proving the commercialization of CDMA to the American communications industry. Because there was no equipment supplier to support Qualcomm at first, Qualcomm had to produce CDMA network equipment and mobile phones.
The world's first CDMA mobile phone was produced in Qualcomm, and Qualcomm pdq was also a very eye-catching mobile phone at that time, which sold well in the United States.
After unremitting efforts, CDMA has finally become a mobile communication standard recognized by the United States and deployed by American operators. Qualcomm has also granted patents to some mobile phone manufacturers and equipment manufacturers, and the number of enterprises producing CDMA equipment and mobile phones has gradually increased.
After winning in the United States, Qualcomm began to promote this system abroad for greater economic benefits.
Qualcomm encountered a problem when promoting his own system. At that time, when Qualcomm went to lobby Japanese mobile phone manufacturers to produce CDMA mobile phones, Japanese mobile phone manufacturers said, "We produce CDMA mobile phones with your patents and chips, but if our mobile phone market is competitive, how can we ensure that you don't have to use your own patents and chips to jam our necks?" That's probably what it means, not the exact words.
At this time, Qualcomm carefully looked at his income and profits, and found that his equipment production and mobile phone production were actually not profitable, and the main profits came from patent authorization, so Qualcomm began to subtract the business. In 2000, he sold his mobile phone business to Kyocera Corporation in Japan.
After that, Qualcomm stopped making his own mobile phone.
During the same period, Qualcomm sold its own equipment production to Ericsson in Sweden, and at the same time launched the ranks of communication equipment production.
After giving up communication equipment and mobile phone production completely, Qualcomm concentrated on patent research and chip development, and later developed into the world's largest mobile phone Soc giant.
In a word, although mobile phones are not made in Qualcomm now, they were originally made in Qualcomm. However, in order to promote its CDMA system, it abandoned the mobile phone business, and then Qualcomm stopped producing mobile phones until today.
In fact, Qualcomm was originally a baseband manufacturer with numerous network patents. In the past, in the era of functional machines, Qualcomm made his fortune mainly by selling patents. Later, in the era of smart phones, Qualcomm saw the chip business opportunity, bought the arm license, and began to manufacture SOC. The key core technologies are actually baseband and related patents. Many mobile phone manufacturers buy chips from Qualcomm because of lack of core technology, which is equivalent to buying baseband and patents from Qualcomm. Therefore, Qualcomm made a lot of money just by selling technology, and the profit was extremely high.
As an American enterprise, Qualcomm is best suited to be an upstream industry such as chips, while mobile phone manufacturing itself belongs to a downstream industry, which requires a large labor cost and takes a long time to build a brand. There is only one Apple, Motorola and Blackberry in the United States, and the latter two are still half dead, so Qualcomm is not suitable for making mobile phones, at least in terms of risk, which is much higher than focusing on selling chips.
Although Huawei has its own chip and mobile phone industry chain, Kirin chip itself is also the authorization to buy arm, and the baseband technology owned by Huawei is also the key. Without baseband and many patents, it is difficult for Huawei Kirin to turn over under the patent of Qualcomm, and the Kirin chip itself is only used by Huawei mobile phones. If Qualcomm makes his own mobile phone, how can Xiaomi, Yijia, OPPO and other manufacturers who have worked with him before continue to cooperate? This is a contradictory question.
Qualcomm is looking for the right way. In fact, Qualcomm didn't want to sell the processor. Its earliest idea was to sell baseband. So we all say that we sell baseband to send processors! However, you think Qualcomm is wrong to sell baseband, because Qualcomm sells patents!
As explained in the encyclopedia, Qualcomm is a global leader in the research and development of 3G, 4G and 5G technologies, and has provided technology licenses to many manufacturers around the world.
In fact, there is a patent dealer in Qualcomm, whose wall is covered with Qualcomm's patents. Qualcomm can play out, in fact, because of Qualcomm's patent advantage, Qualcomm first began to make its own patents known to everyone, especially Qualcomm's CDMA technology-its appearance changed the face of global wireless communication forever.
When Qualcomm profited from the patent, we suddenly found that Qualcomm started a new direction, the processor. While Qualcomm is slowly turning the processor into the world's top processor, Qualcomm's position is gradually established.
Then, let's discuss why Qualcomm doesn't produce mobile phones.
In my opinion, the reason why Qualcomm doesn't make mobile phones is not because it can't, but because the competition in the mobile phone industry is very fierce at present. For Qualcomm, the most important benefits brought by processors and their patents far exceed the profits brought by mobile phones.
If Qualcomm joins the mobile phone industry, it may lose the possibility that most Android phones use Qualcomm processors. For Qualcomm, the most important thing at present is to give full play to its processor advantages, so as to gain the recognition of consumers and the use of more mobile phone manufacturers. For Qualcomm, the mobile phone industry is not an industry to set foot in!
1, Qualcomm used to be a chip, a mobile phone and a base station.
Speaking of which, Qualcomm used to produce chips, mobile phones and base stations. That was in the early days of CDMA popularization, because CDMA is basically the same technology as Qualcomm.
Therefore, in order to popularize this technology, Qualcomm not only manufactures chips, but also manufactures CDMA mobile phones and CDAM base stations.
Later, CDMA network came into being. Qualcomm withdrew from the mobile phone market, sold the mobile phone business to Kyocera, and also sold the base station business. He is at ease to do his own chip and patent licensing, upstream and downstream development, and does not grab the market with game manufacturers, so he is at ease.
2. Later, Qualcomm positioned itself as a chip and technology provider, rather than an overall product provider.
Later, with the development of the times, Qualcomm's position became clearer, and it only made chips and solutions providers, rather than providing overall products. So we see that Qualcomm no longer produces mobile phones, does not do base stations or anything, and focuses on chips, patent licensing and solutions. This is Qualcomm's position.
So we can see that the chips of Huawei, Samsung and Apple are not for sale. In fact, this is the reason. If other manufacturers rely on you, you still use your own downstream to grab the market. What shall we do? No one will do it.
In addition, in fact, there is no need to do more business, just do it well. Qualcomm is very good at this. At present, whether Samsung, MediaTek or Huawei are strictly better than Qualcomm.
Qualcomm was founded in 1985 and is headquartered in the United States.