Qualcomm recently posted its fourth-quarter earnings, and despite a slowing smartphone market, the San Diego firm managed to beat expectations. While the company might have narrowly avoided a pummeling in this three-month period, there are a myriad of challenges that await the chipset maker going into 2024, with Huawei likely on the top of that list. Fortunately, Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon stated in the earnings call that these events and the emergence of another player will not affect its relationship with other smartphone brands in China.
Despite Huawei returning to the market with the Kirin 9000S and the Mate 60 launch, Qualcomm CFO Akash Palkhiwala estimated a 35 percent quarter-over-quarter sales increase to Chinese smartphone customers
Overall sales for Q4 2023 reached $8.67 billion, with Qualcomm beating analysts’ estimates of $8.51 billion. The promising performance results of the newly announced Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 and its renewed 5G modem contract with Apple that has been extended for three years means the company can stay in the green zone for a little longer, but that will not prevent Huawei from attempting to reach its former position in 2019, where it was estimated to ship around 240 million smartphones.
The threat of Huawei is even more evident now, but according to Reuters, Qualcomm’s Chief Executive believes that this re-entry will not affect its relationship with other Chinese smartphone brands. In fact, the report states that Qualcomm’s CFO Akash Palkhiwala estimated a 35 percent quarter-over-quarter increase in sales to Chinese smartphone customers. Another positive note is that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 will make up the majority of Samsung’s Galaxy S24 sales, despite the lineup arriving with the Exynos 2400 in some regions.
While Qualcomm and its executives might appear confident in posting strong financial results in the future, others share a different opinion. Ming-Chi Kuo, a well-known TF International Securities analyst, believes that Huawei’s Kirin 9000S could result in Qualcomm losing up to 60 million chipset orders in 2024, which can round up to a revenue in the billions. The chipset manufacturer would either have to engage in a price war to entice its existing Chinese smartphone partners or risk losing out on additional orders next year.
Then again, Qualcomm might have to re-think pricing strategy because one company executive hinted that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 sporting the company’s custom Oryon cores might make the chipset even more expensive than the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. With China one of the most competitive markets in the world, brands might either cut their margins and choose the option Qualcomm gives them or proceed to look for alternatives, which range from using Huawei’s chipsets to developing their own SoCs, the latter being the significantly more difficult route.
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