Qualcomm is aiming for growth by moving to address the consumer
electronics market with its Snapdragon platform, announced last
week, which will offer processing power teamed with wireless
connectivity.
“We’ve been solely focused on wireless, but we’re looking at other
markets now for our growth,” Terry Yen, senior director marketing
at Qualcomm CDMA Technologies, told EW. “One of the things
we want to do is to take a look at the consumer electronics market
space.”
Snapdragon uses the Scorpion 1GHz microprocessor paired with 128
bit single instruction multiple data capability and a 600MHz
DSP.
“This device is an integrated piece of silicon that will marry the
processing power necessary in everyday consumer electronic devices
- iPods, PSP - with the connectivity of the highest end mobile
devices,” said Yen. “This is going to have HSDPA and HSUPA, GSM,
GPRS, WLAN and Bluetooth.”
Yen said Snapdragon “comes in a package that will fit in an iPod
nano” and would have power consumption that will allow a
battery-powered laptop to operate for 24 hours.
“We want to get this product out there - it’ll be sampling Q3 2007
- and we want device developers to look and say ‘hey, what can we
do with this power and capabilities’?” said Yen.