Qualcomm continued a quest to diversify its portfolio beyond hardware, unveiling a cloud-based software service to track its chips across supply chains which it claimed would drive operational efficiencies for the IoT and enterprises.

The Qualcomm Aware service is designed to work across edge devices and cloud to initially target real-time supply chain visibility for use cases including location and condition monitoring.

Qualcomm Aware connects to chips embedded into tracking devices used in verticals including utility asset monitoring, cargo shipment tracking, and warehouse and inventory management.

Mike Roberts, VP of global product marketing, told press the service could have additional applications including sending alerts when equipment showed signs of failing.

“A lot of different data can be emanated from various different verticals, which impacts a lot of different industries.”

The service employs a subscription-based model.

Qualcomm stated it had shipped more than 350 million IoT modem chipsets to date, used by more than 25 hardware and software partners. It plans to provide blueprints to these companies to develop customised architectures using a cloud-based API and its existing software tools.

It named Microsoft Dynamics 365 as one of the first Qualcomm Aware customers. The company plans to use the framework to enable its customers to develop their own services.

Ulrich Homann, corporate VP for cloud and AI at Microsoft, stated the move will enable customers to track assets and manage inventories to improve their operational efficiency.

Qualcomm Aware is scheduled to be available later in 2023.