by admin | May 25, 2021 | Branding, Business, Markets, Technology
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San Francisco : Taking its legal battle with chip making giant Qualcomm to the next level, Apple has claimed it wanted to use Qualcomm modems in its 2018’s iPhone models but the chip maker refused to sell them after being sued by the iPhone maker over its licensing practices.
The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has accused Qualcomm of operating a monopoly in wireless chips, forcing companies such as Apple to work with it exclusively and charging excessive licensing fees for its technology.
According to Apple Chief Operating Officer Jeff Williams’s testimony in court during the FTC trial against Qualcomm, the latter refused to sell its 4G LTE modems to Apple because of the companies’ licensing dispute, the CNET reported late on Monday.
The chip making giant continues to provide the iPhone maker with chips for its older models, including the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus.
“The strategy was to dual-source in 2018 as well. We were working toward doing that with Qualcomm but in the end they would not support us or sell us chips,” the report quoted William as saying.
Apple reportedly dialled Intel’s CEO at the time, Brian Krzanich, to ask the company to supply all modems needed for the iPhone instead of only half the volume.
However, Williams’ comments appear to contradict testimony from Qualcomm’s CEO Steven Mollenkopf.
Mollenkopf on Friday had said on the stand that as of spring 2018, Qualcomm was still trying to win a contract supplying chips for iPhones but that it hadn’t “had any new business” from Apple since its previous contracts expired, the report added.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Markets, Technology, World
Brussels : The European Union (EU) has fined US smartphone chip supplier Qualcomm 997 million euros ($1.23 billion) for abusing its market dominance found illegal under EU antitrust rules, the European Commission said on Wednesday.
Qualcomm is the world’s largest supplier of long-term evolution (LTE) baseband chipsets, which enable smartphones and tablets to connect to cellular networks and are used both for voice and data transmission, Xinhua reported.
The Commission said Qualcomm illegally shut out rivals from the market for LTE baseband chipsets for over five years, thereby cementing its market dominance.
“Qualcomm paid billions of dollars to a key customer, Apple, so that it would not buy from rivals,” Margrethe Vestager, the EU Commissioner in charge of competition policy, was quoted as saying.
These payments were not just reductions in price; they were made on the condition that Apple would exclusively use Qualcomm’s baseband chipsets in all its iPhones and iPads, Vestager said.
In 2011, Qualcomm signed an agreement with Apple, committing to make significant payments to Apple on condition that the company would exclusively use Qualcomm chipsets in its iPhone and iPad devices. In 2013, the term of the agreement was extended to the end of 2016.
The agreement made clear that Qualcomm would cease these payments, if Apple commercially launched a device with a chipset supplied by a rival.
“This meant that no rival could effectively challenge Qualcomm in this market, no matter how good their products were. Qualcomm’s behavior denied consumers and other companies more choice and innovation and this is a sector with a huge demand and potential for innovative technologies. This is illegal under EU antitrust rules,” she added.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business, Interviews, Marketing Basics, Markets, SMEs, Technology
By Krishna Sinha Chaudhury,
New Delhi : As the Indian market embraces the 4G Long Term-Evolution (LTE) technology ecosystem in a big way, global chip giant Qualcomm finds it natural to innovate for the growing 4G market in the country, a senior company executive has said.
According to Counterpoint Research’s “Market Monitor” service, LTE-installed base of mobile handsets crossed 150 million units in India — behind only China and the United States — and is estimated to surpass the US in the next one year.
Leading the 4G data race is Reliance Jio that has garnered 125 million customers across the country. Since its launch 10 months back, Jio has added seven customers per second on an average.
“The Indian market is rapidly transitioning into a 4G LTE market which marks an excellent opportunity for us,” Larry Paulson, Vice President and President of Qualcomm India, told IANS.
“Our roadmap at this point entirely consists of 4G LTE. We already carry a rich legacy in 2G and 3G technology in India,” Paulson added.
In March, the company announced Snapdragon 205 mobile platform that is targeted at 4G feature phones.
“Though there has not been any public announcement about 4G feature phones with Qualcomm but yes, we are moving ahead quite well with that technology,” Paulson noted.
Reliance Jio has launched a “free” JioPhone that is powered by Qualcomm’s 205 mobile platform.
Qualcomm believes the users in India give importance to value and that is why the company is focused on the value proposition.
“First and foremost, there is a long line of lessons in doing business in India. It is very important to listen to the market and the market has a high emphasis on value,” the executive said.
“We are enabling our customers and partners to build products that not only have high capabilities but also help them package those capabilities in a value proposition. With this, we have announced our roadmap at mobile platform 200 and then Snapdragon 450, 600, 800. I think we are addressing exactly that value proposition,” Paulson contended.
Acknowledging the company’s upward growth trajectory in the country, he said: “From a presence point of view, yes, we have grown. We have an engineering centre in Hyderabad, a development centre in Bengaluru and a wireless division in Chennai.”
The company stressed that it would continue to work on research and development and engineering technologies in the country.
Qualcomm is also confident about the newest addition to the Snapdragon 400 chipset family.
“We have four chipset families — the Snapdragon 200, 400, 600 and 800. Each one means more and enables more. To be able to bring that technology down to Snapdragon 400 level is very good for India. That also means we will be able to hit quite attractive price points and powerful technology,” Paulson told IANS.
Snapdragon 450 was unveiled at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Shanghai this year.
“This is the first time we have brought the 14 nanometre (nm) technology down into the Snapdragon 400 family. The benefits of this are power management and size,” the executive said.
Qualcomm India has also started an initiative named “SoochnaPreneur”, in association with Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF), that aims to connect rural youth to information about government entitlement programmes.
The programme also aims to create technology-based entrepreneurship opportunities for the rural youth.
The initiative also demonstrates how advanced wireless technologies can be used for social and economic empowerment, helping to bridge information poverty gaps through last-mile information access and delivery of services.
(Krishna SinhaChaudhury can be contacted at krishna.s@ians.in)
—IANS
