Qualcomm admits ‘large customer’ moving away from Snapdragon 810 processor

29 Jan 2015

Semiconductor company Qualcomm has cut its financial outlook for the current financial year on the back of the loss of a ‘large customer’ for one of its products, the Snapdragon 810 processor.

Only a matter of days after Bloomberg reported Samsung would not use Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 810 processor in its upcoming Galaxy S smartphone, Qualcomm has admitted a large customer is pulling out, affecting projections.

Last week, Bloomberg reported Samsung would use its own microprocessors after discovering the Qualcomm 810 application processor overheated during testing – this news in part reflects this story, although as yet the identity of Qualcomm’s ‘large customer’ has not been revealed.

The loss of a customer, along with ‘heightened competition in China’ has seen Qualcomm lower its revenue outlook for its semiconductor business for the second half of the financial year.

Qualcomm has resolved a dispute with a licensee in China, which had been dragging on somewhat, but the company still reckons certain licencees in China are not ‘fully complying’ with their obligations to report accurate sales of their products.

As reported by CNet, Qualcomm executives defended the 810 chip, saying there were no design concerns, ‘except for the issues brought up by that one customer’.

“The device is working the way we expected it to work and we have design traction that reflects that,” said CEO Steven Mollenkopf.

“If you look at the number of designs – over 60 – it’s essentially won all the premium designs across multiple ecosystems … So, we’re quite pleased with how that is performing.”

Microchip image via Shutterstock

Gordon Hunt was a journalist with Silicon Republic

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