Qualcomm’s technology at the moment is largely found in smartphones and tablets, and as Re/code has so deftly pointed out, the smartphone market is starting to level off, not to mention there are plenty of OEMs who are starting to make their own processors these days, meaning that the market for Qualcomm’s products is getting smaller by the day.
Naturally this means that Qualcomm will need to look elsewhere for potential clients and one area that they have recently expressed interest in would be the drone market. Now this isn’t so much that Qualcomm will start building drones themselves, but rather they are interested in supplying drone makers with their chips.
According to Qualcomm’s Senior VP Raj Talluri, he believes that a single Snapdragon 800 chipset is capable of handling tasks like photography, navigation, and communications. This would be a more efficient system as right now in drones, multiple chips are required for these tasks.
Talluri also believes that by simplifying it and reducing the number of chips required, it could reduce the cost of drones as well. It is unclear who will take Qualcomm up on their offer, but the company stated that they will formally announce their drone efforts and share additional details next month.