It has barely been a couple of months when the global smartphone makers ceremoniously launched their new smartphones and each of them were vying to get to the number one position. They have made claims about their smartphones as tall as the sky in order to tell the consumers that they have the device with the latest in it. Millions of dollars have been spent in their launch parties, and the media – including me – has been writing at length about their new innovations. Many consumers have spent sleepless nights on the street to get a hand on the new gadget. But it all seems like a bubble swelling and then in a minute bursts off and a new tech bubble comes to take its place. Technology and consumerism has reached such a height that the shelve life of any device is getting shorter and shorter day by day. Qualcomm (QCOM, Financial) has released a new mobile device technology which will make the new releases look old. Let us check out what is in store from the Qualcomm shop floor.
Time to upgrade the Smartphones you just bought
Qualcomm, engaged in B2B business, has again innovated something new for the mobile device makers across the globe. Qualcomm has recently announced the launch of its 64-bit octa-core Snapdragon 810 and hexa-core Snapdragon 808 back in April, and now it has released reference smartphone and tablet hardware kits. These hardware development kits are being sold by Canadian firm called Intrinsyc for the device makers. The Mobile Development Platform smartphone costs $799 whereas the tablet platform is priced at $999.
The Smartphone platform
The Mobile Development Platform (MDP) smartphone features a massive 6.17-inch display with a display resolution of 2560 x 1600 pixels. It will house the 64-bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 SoC with an octa-core processor, Adreno 430 GPU and a Qualcomm Hexagon V56 digital signal processor. The device has also been packed with a powerful 4GB LP-DDR4 RAM normally found in PCs and laptops and will be the first to be built in a smartphone housing.
The MDP smartphone also gets a 13MP rear camera with 4K video at 30 frames per second video capture capability, a 4MP front-facing camera with 1080p clocking at 60 frames per second while capturing pictures in video mode. It will come with a 3,020mAh battery with a Qualcomm Quick Charge 2.0 feature and is packed with eight built-in microphones to enhance the sound quality making it at par with professional cameras.
The Tablet platform
The MDP tablet platform is also powered by the same Snapdragon 810 SoC and 4GB of RAM. It sports a display of 10.1-inch screen size at a 3840 x 2160 pixel resolution with a fairly good 64GB of on-board storage along with the option to increase it using the microSD card slot though going by the size and features it is housing which is quite close to a decent netbook the inbuilt storage space or the hard disk could have been enhanced a bit more. It will be powered by a 7,560mAh battery.
The camera configurations are pretty much similar to the smartphone with a 13MP rear camera and a 4MP front camera. It is also packed with dual 3D IR cameras on board as well. There is a 3-axis accelerometer, 3-axis gyro, 3-axis magnetometer along with ambient light / proximity sensor and temperature / pressure sensor. The obvious question is next time, when we go on an outing, do we need to carry an extra baggage of cameras or will the new devices be good enough?
Final words
Qualcomm and Intrinsyc has declared that it will hit the market by mid-December and primarily meant for early adopters such as developers, however this time it would also hit the shelves for the consumers to experience the technology first hand before any conventional smartphone maker brings it out for them. Now the question is whether Qualcomm is moving from being a B2B tech company to a B2C company. It would not really be a surprise since any one would like to have a slice of the ongoing smartphone frenzy. It also looks like the new smartphone will scale up in size from the current 6-inch to something beyond that.
Obviously the established smartphone giants will take cognizance of this new move by Qualcomm and will start gearing up their shop floors for another round of new launches with better features packed into their phones and tablets to stay in the competition. But as the tech world seems to move too fast Qualcomm will stand to gain either ways since it will encash the consumer market as well as from the other smartphone makers as most of the smartphones in the world run on different versions of snapdragon processors by Qualcomm. As investors it would be best to build systematic position in Qualcomm and take the advantage once the second round of tech launches begin kick starting another round of buying frenzy in the smartphone and tablet segment across the globe.
