Recently, well-known Apple analyst Tianfeng International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said that US chip giant Qualcomm will start cutting prices as early as Q4 this year to cope with the impact of losing chip orders from the Chinese mobile phone company, showing that the launch of domestic 5G mobile phones has triggered a chain of events. reaction.
Ming-Chi Kuo speculated that as the Chinese mobile phone company adopted self-developed chips, this directly caused Qualcomm to lose 50 million to 60 million chip orders for this mobile phone. As a result, Qualcomm's share of the Chinese mobile phone chip market will further decline. This is The main reason why Qualcomm had to cut prices to sell.
Secondly, the competitive landscape of the high-end mobile phone market has prompted Qualcomm to cut prices. Currently, in the domestic high-end mobile phone market, Apple occupies nearly 80% of the market share. As this domestic mobile phone brand launches independently developed 5G mobile phones, it is expected to further seize the high-end mobile phone market. , the share of other domestic mobile phones using Qualcomm chips will be further squeezed.
Domestic mobile phone companies have previously stated that the price of Qualcomm's high-end chip Snapdragon 8G2 is as high as 160 US dollars, which is about 1,134 yuan. This has made domestic mobile phone companies complain endlessly. In desperation, domestic mobile phones have to price their flagship phones as high as 6,999 yuan. The high price Prices have led to a decline in the competitiveness of domestic mobile phones.
Thirdly, it is the impact of competition in the chip market. Qualcomm was able to increase prices so unscrupulously before because domestic mobile phone brands had no choice. High-end mobile phones can only use Qualcomm chips. Qualcomm has the monopoly right to naturally increase prices. Now domestic 5G The chip king is back, and Qualcomm has no choice but to put down its posture. This is the benefit of market competition.
When the early smartphone market just started, Qualcomm had no competitive advantage in the mobile phone chip market. At that time, Intel's Xscale processors and Texas Instruments processors dominated the smartphone market. In order to seize the market, Qualcomm provided prices for Chinese mobile phone companies. Affordable mobile phone chips.
With the support of Qualcomm, the price of domestic flagship mobile phones at that time was as low as 1,999 yuan. However, with the advent of the smartphone era, Xscale and Texas Instruments processors did not integrate the baseband into mobile phone SOC chips, resulting in high power consumption and high cost of mobile phones. Too high, they were quickly defeated by Qualcomm, and Qualcomm quickly became the dominant player in the mobile phone chip market. It can be said that Qualcomm can dominate the global mobile phone chip market, and Chinese mobile phones are indispensable.
After Qualcomm dominated the mobile phone chip market, MediaTek has successively launched offensives in the high-end chip market. However, because Qualcomm has stronger technology and has patent advantages, this is particularly important for Chinese mobile phones that lack patents. They need Qualcomm's patents to go to overseas markets. Authorization, so Qualcomm has always firmly dominated the high-end mobile phone chip market.
Another reason is the competition between domestic mobile phone company Huawei in the high-end mobile phone chip market. Huawei's flagship mobile phones have always used its own chips. In the domestic high-end mobile phone market, it once shared the market equally with Apple, which also prevented Qualcomm from raising prices arbitrarily. . Later, due to well-known reasons, there were no chip foundries to manufacture chips for Huawei. Qualcomm once again dominated the high-end mobile phone chip market, and Qualcomm began to increase prices aggressively. The price of Snapdragon 8G2 reached US$160, which is equivalent to half the price of mid-to-high-end mobile phones. Let domestic mobile phones complain endlessly.
Facts have proved that the market needs competition. If there is no competitive pressure, the American chips that occupy the upper reaches will increase prices unscrupulously. Texas Instruments did the same before. It once raised the price of a classic analog chip to 70 yuan, and after the launch of domestic analog chips, , the price of this chip has dropped to 1 yuan, while domestic analog chips only cost 7 cents.
It can be seen that only the progress of domestic chips can make American chips converge. What do you think?