Qualcomm has finalized agreements with several major Chinese smartphone manufacturers to ensure a range of 5G-ready devices will be available in 2019.
The initiative, dubbed “5G Pioneer,” was signed by Oppo, ZTE, Xiaomi, Lenovo, and Wingtech.
Cristiano Amon, President of Qualcomm Incorporated, said:
“5G will bring massive new opportunities to the mobile industry, and we are excited to work with these manufacturers on this 5G Pioneer Initiative.
Qualcomm Technologies has close relationships within China’s mobile and semiconductor ecosystem, and we’ll continue to work with this ecosystem to drive innovation as we move from the 3G/4G era to the 5G era.”
Under the memorandum, the partners will collaborate to develop the first devices that comply with the 5G NR (New Radio) standard. The goal is to have a lineup of premium 5G handsets ready next year, powered by Qualcomm platforms and components.
Qualcomm says interest in 5G among Chinese consumers is exceptionally strong. According to a company survey, roughly 60 percent of Chinese mobile users plan to buy a 5G smartphone once they become available.
Four manufacturers — Oppo, Xiaomi, Vivo, and Lenovo — committed to purchasing approximately $2 billion worth of RF components from Qualcomm over the next three years, strengthening their supply arrangements for next-generation devices.
All announcements were made at Qualcomm’s China Tech Day event in Beijing, where the company also outlined plans for a new 5G Tunable RF front-end. This technology aims to help manufacturers produce thinner devices with improved system-level performance while accelerating their readiness for 5G products.
“Qualcomm Technologies has long supported the Chinese mobile ecosystem and today’s MoU signings with Lenovo, OPPO, vivo, and Xiaomi further demonstrates our commitment to that ecosystem, as well as our strategy to continue to grow our RF front-end business.
Our robust RF front-end solutions help these OEMs to not only build power-efficient devices at scale in a cost-effective way, but also to deliver advanced mobile devices to consumers not just in China, but around the world.”
While Qualcomm’s partnerships in China mark a significant step toward widespread 5G device availability, the company is facing challenges elsewhere. Recently, the European Commission fined Qualcomm €997 million for abusing its market dominance in LTE baseband chipsets. The commission found that Qualcomm made substantial payments to a major customer on the condition that the customer would not buy rivals’ chipsets, a move that undermined competition.
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