Qualcomm revealed it had signed a multi-year extension to supply and licencing agreements with Samsung as it issued numbers for its fiscal Q3 (the three months to 26 June) where it booked growth in revenue and profit, but tempered expectations for the future.

Under the upgraded agreements, Qualcomm will supply Snapdragon platforms for a greater proportion of top tier Samsung devices than is currently the case.

During its earnings call, Qualcomm president and CEO Cristiano Amon explained its platform was in 75 per cent of Samsung’s latest flagship Galaxy S22 and predicted “much better than that on Galaxy S23 and beyond”.

Samsung’s recent flagships have come with either Qualcomm Snapdragon chips or the South Korean vendor’s own Exynos platform, depending on the region.

The pair also extended existing patent licensing agreement for a further seven years until 2030. These cover the use of Qualcomm’s 3G, 4G and 5G IP across a range of devices including smartphones, tablets, PCs and extended reality-related products.

It now also includes a provision for future 6G technology.

Slowdown
Away from hailing its Samsung deals, Amon and Qualcomm CFO Akash Palkhiwala noted a decrease in sales for mid- and low-tier smartphones during the quarter, though this was offset by increases at the high-end.

Palkhiwala added Qualcomm was now working on the expectation global handset sales would decrease by a “mid-single-digit percentage” for calendar 2022, a prediction which broadly reflects analyst outlooks for the period.

“We expect the elevated uncertainty in the global economy and the impact of Covid-19 measures in China will cause customers to act with caution in managing their purchases in the second half of calendar 2022.”

Qualcomm booked revenue of $10.9 billion in fiscal Q3, up 36 per cent year-on-year. Handset revenue alone was up 59 per cent to $6.2 billion, a statistic Palkhiwala attributed to increases in the premium and higher tier.

Net income increased 84 per cent to $3.7 billion.