 "India Mobile Congress: Qualcomm places production chips on India bet")
Qualcomm Inc, the company designing fabless chips, is hoping to source some of the products it works on from India in the next two years as semiconductor plants here become operational.
Qualcomm India President Savi Soin said: “It is a sound strategy and talks are underway. There should not be a compromise on quality and performance and the cost has to be competitive. Users will not pay more.”
Qualcomm, among others, has a partnership with Micron, which makes memory chips and is building a test and assembly plant in Sanand, Gujarat. It will start producing “made in India” memory chips probably next year.
The United States-based company is pushing its core 8 processor. It aims at making artificial intelligence-powered laptops affordable.
Companies like Asus, HP, Dell, and Lenovo just launched worldwide laptops based on the processor. They are available in the country and more brands are expected to hit the market by December this year.
Soin said: “We are showcasing the 8 core, which powers affordable artificial intelligence (AI) laptops for $700-900. We have not made any compromises in the AI personal computer on its power or performance.”
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Stating that it is “tough” to be a latecomer in the laptop processor business, where established giants hold sway, Soin said user experience on device performance as well as the power had been a big differentiator.
It is following the affordability strategy for mobile devices through the 4SG2 processor, launched in July this year, to power affordable 5G phones.
“A year ago there were few phones in the 5G segment in the Rs 10,000-13,000 bracket. We looked at how we can bring the price even lower and announced a new chip this July. We expect the chip will power phones in the Rs 7,000-10,000 range, which is a sweet spot for 5G phones.”
It expects Xiaomi to launch this year the first phone powered by the new chip. Companies like Reliance Jio and many other original equipment manufacturers too have shown an interest.
However, even here Soin said no compromises had been made on the device in the camera and graphic performance to ensure a premium experience, apart from a good battery life and good sound quality.
The company is bullish on the auto market -- both internal combustion engine and electric vehicles -- and is working with top two-wheeler and four-wheeler companies, mostly in visual cockpit, advanced drive-assistance system, communication between the vehicle and the infrastructure, the telematics control unit, among others.