Can Qualcomm See Wearables Success With The Snapdragon Wear 3100 Chip?
Qualcomm (NYSE:QCOM) introduced a smartwatch chipset called the Snapdragon Wear 3100 at an event held on Monday, marking its first major smartwatch chip launch in over two years. The chip, which is based on an all-new architecture, will be crucial to driving Qualcomm’s growth in the wearables market, as the company looks for new avenues of expansion, considering its slowing smartphone SoC sales and headwinds at its lucrative technology licensing operations. The company has indicated that it expects $1 billion in sales from IoT and wearables chips this year. Below, we take a look at what the new chipset could mean for Qualcomm.
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The new chip will be targeted squarely at smartwatches running Google’s Wear OS software and will offer a new architecture that features two processors. Unlike the company’s previous chips, which were actually derived from smartphone chips, the Wear 3100 is built for wearables and will focus on use cases such as heart-rate monitoring and step tracking. The main processor, which is based on an ARM design will have the processing power to run full apps, while a secondary processor will run a simpler operating system that handles just a few tasks while consuming as much as 20 times less energy than the main processor. Qualcomm has indicated that wearable devices powered using these chips could last for over a week or more if they aren’t running applications. This will allow smartwatches to feature always-on screens, making them feel more like regular watches.
Qualcomm’s Success May Be Tied To Success Of Google’s Ecosystem
The smartwatch market is growing fast, rising by about 37% year-over-year during Q2 2018, per a report from Counterpoint. In comparison, the smartphone market declined by 1.8% in the same period. However, the smartwatch market is very fragmented, and the share of smartwatches running Google software (which Qualcomm chips primarily cater to) has actually been shrinking, standing at just 7% during Q2. In comparison, Apple’s OS has a share of 41%. Google’s weak traction in the smartwatch market comes down to the company’s relatively lackluster software, weak integration of core smartphone features and the fragmented nature of the Android ecosystem. While Google is looking to make its wearable platform more intuitive and easier to use via software updates, competition from players running proprietary software and chipsets is also mounting. For instance, Apple looks set to unveil its first completely redesigned Apple Watch this week, while Fitbit is also seeing some traction with its new Versa smartwatch.
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