Your Tech Story

Qualcomm

Qualcomm Snapdragon

Boost for Mobile Gaming in India Through Qualcomm India’s Snapdragon Conquest Program

Leave a Comment / News, Tech News / By

Qualcomm India has been launching a few initiatives in recent months and is showing no signs of stopping. Yesterday they announced their plans for an extensive mobile gaming e-sports program. Named Snapdragon Conquest, this first-ever gaming program will give a significant boost to the mobile gaming sector in India. Read on to find out more about Qualcomm’s plans and how they will shape India’s future as a gaming center.

What does the Snapdragon Conquest offer?

Qualcomm stated that the Snapdragon Conquest will be powered by features, such as Qualcomm Snapdragon Elite Gaming. The event will feature various games and programs spread across the year. The program will encourage mobile gamers from across the country and of varied skills to take part and showcase their talent. The event will also feature varying levels of difficulty, helping individuals of varying levels of proficiency to take part in it.

Snapdragon Tournament Details

The kick-off event will be the Snapdragon Conquest: Free Fire Open 2020, which will feature prizes worth a whopping INR 50,00,000. Players from around the world will be able to witness this spectacle as it will be broadcasted live via player live streams. Apart from the opener, Qualcomm has not revealed the other games which will be a part of the Snapdragon Conquest. However, experts believe that Need for Speed and PUBG India will be a part of the lineup due to their popularity within the country.

Entry Specifications for the Tournament

Additionally, the Snapdragon Conquest features no registration fee, making it entirely free to enter. Interested participants may register for the tournament through its official website. Qualcomm also stated that it would reveal further details through the company’s official Twitter ID. Other updates, dates, and details regarding the events and their timings will also be updated through the company’s Twitter handle. The eligibility criteria here is that contestants must be well-versed with Garena Free Fire, which is similar to PUBG Mobile’s works in a way. Each team competing will have four members, and there will be multiple rounds which will help teams progress up the ladder.

Qualcomm India’s Snapdragon Conquest Program
Image Source: indianexpress.com

Qualcomm and India

Qualcomm is an American tech company based infsnap San Diego. Over the years, they have expanded and found a place for themselves within the Indian digital ecosystem. The chipset manufacturer now enjoys a hood position within the Indian market, powering several flagship phones in the market. The Snapdragon Conquest will be their first foray into competitive gaming in India. The Fire tournament that sets off the event will also be Qualcomm’s first Free Fore tournament in the country.

India is the world’s second-largest smartphone market. The rise in the usage of smartphones and improved internet penetration has led to a boom in mobile gaming in India. The advent of 4G has also helped improve access to such games and events in India, leading to more users. The recent $100 million investment by PUBG Corporation is an example of this untapped potential. The move will also trigger a surge in popularity for the Garena Free Fire game that works on a battle royale structure. This event will also help them boost interest regarding their planned launch of PUBG Mobile India.

Impact on Indian Gaming

Qualcomm believes that India is a mobile-first industry wherein most people rely on their smartphones for most things. Rather than invest in a gaming rig, most Indians prefer to play games on their smartphones. Hence, encouraging the mobile-gaming sector within the country is an excellent way to encourage more people to play such games. The rise of mobile gaming in India has been phenomenal, with it raising the demand for better technology as well. As a result, there is a push for an improved ecosystem and better opportunities for such gaming.  

Qualcomm announced that it was excited about the launch of such an event, that is the first of its kind. They believe that they are helping create a community that challenges and understands the gaming needs of Indians across the country. Such an event will also test the competitiveness and skill of our gamers. Meanwhile, it will also give the company a deeper understanding of what this audience needs. Hence, the VP of Qualcomm India, Rajen Vagadia, believes that this event is the start of much greater things.

Qualcomm

Reliance JIO and Qualcomm Join Forces to Bring 5G to India

Leave a Comment / India, News, Tech News / By

India is all set to receive superfast internet soon enough. Making this dream a reality will be a partnership between India’s Reliance JIO and US-based Qualcomm. The two technology and communication giants are joining hands to build and develop 5G technologies in India. Reliance will be leveraging its subsidiary Radisys Corporation, which it wholly owns to help build the necessary 5G infrastructure. In this article, we will take a look at how this deal works out, and by when we can expect super-fast internet in India.

Jio and Qualcomm partners for the Better

Chipset manufacturer Qualcomm and Radisys Corporation will develop a virtualized RAN. Such a Radio Access Network will help boost the development of 5G architecture in India. With the help of this partnership, we can expect a faster roll-out for such services within the country. The companies also announced that they achieved speeds eclipsing 1 Gbps over their 5GNR network. Reliance Jio’s 5GNR software leverages Qualcomm’s RAN platform to obtain these high speeds. Furthermore, Qualcomm announced that this platform allows it to enter the Gigabit 5G NR portfolio.

Faster Internet for all

The usage of 5G will allow mobile phone users to receive higher data rates. Furthermore, 5G also offers lower latency communication and enhance the overall digital experience. The network supports a slew of devices, including AR and VR gaming products, smartphones, and laptops. The announcement which occurred on Tuesday will fast-track the much-awaited 5G roll-out in India. The indigenous network infrastructure for 5G will help in streamlining network services for millions in India. Also, the 5G RAN product has become a part of the Gigabit throughput clock. Furthermore, a Tier-1 American carrier has already tested and verified the product for its quality and high-speed performance. This move will also help India join the 5G club. Presently, only a few nations, including Australia, Germany, the US, South Korea, and Switzerland have produced 1 Gbps speeds over 5G.

Qualcomm
Image Source: qualcomm.com

What the Companies Had to Say

Mathew Oommen, who serves as the President of Jio Infocomm, stated that the company was looking forward to the partnership. While speaking at the Qualcomm 5G Summit, he noted that the development of new-gen 5G RAN will be a revolutionary technology. The cloud-native software will help both companies scale their operations tremendously. Qualcomm Technologies, while working with Jio Platforms, will help make India a genuinely 5G inclusive nation. It will provide a vital boost to local manufacturing and help accelerate the achievement of Atmanirbhar Bharat.

Meanwhile, VP of Qualcomm India Rajen Vagadia stated that they were delighted to take their partnership with Jio to the next level. Both companies have now been working together for quite some time now and enjoy a great relationship. By creating a shared 5G vision for India, the partnership will help in supporting India’s digital transformation. As per the needs of the day, India requires a better and more powerful mobile experience. Rajen noted that very soon more and more consumers will want 5G services, leading to a massive spike in demand. Such services will be of great help to healthcare, retail, and manufacturing industries. Since Jio is a game-changer when it comes to the delivery of cost-effective 4G services, this partnership will help both companies drastically. Jio already enjoys massive network coverage and a large user base, which will be ready to switch to 5G once the roll-out is complete.

Moving Forward

As you can see, the partnership between Qualcomm and Reliance Jio will help catalyze the adoption and implementation of 5G in India. The adoption of this technology will finally put an end to lousy streaming, never-ending buffering, and frequent voice cuts over calls. It will also give a push to the adoption of vertical IoT solutions and other smart devices across the nation. Such an indigenous network will prevent India from having to depend on Chinese systems for their infrastructure. Not only will this help reduce our dependence on them, but it will also help improve security on our national infrastructure. Also, earlier this year Qualcomm picked up a 0.15% stake in Jio for a whopping INR 730 crores. Hence, this venture may be the start of many more such partnerships between the communication-industry legends.

Qualcomm

Qualcomm is developing its gaming smartphone in partnership with Asus

Leave a Comment / News, Tech News / By

Many companies have launched excellent gaming phones in the last few years. Some of the best gaming phones to date are launched by Apple, Asus, Samsung, Sony, Black Shark, Nubia, etc. But, now it seems the leading company in the sphere of telecommunication and wireless networks is also entering the realm of a gaming smartphone. So, sit tight as Qualcomm in collaboration with Asus is going to launch a gaming smartphone as early as the end of this year.

The source of this news is Digitimes, a Taiwanese tech outlet. Though we still don’t have a name yet, the outlet has also mentioned that these gaming phones will be Qualcomm-branded. Both the companies are planning on designing more than one gaming smartphone and at least one of them will run by the Snapdragon 875 processor. The details about both the system integration and the outlook design are quite vague till now. But, Qualcomm has announced an event on 1st December 2020 to introduce the Snapdragon 875 SoC. It is expected that the company might mention further details about these gaming smartphones at the event.

Qualcomm and Asus Work distribution 

Till now Qualcomm and Asus have only made the collaboration public but nothing about these smartphones. But, it is expected that Qualcomm-branded gaming phones will also bear the mark of the Republic of Gamers as the company is partnering with Asus. These gaming smartphones are also expected to run in the latest Snapdragon processor, have a better display, and a comparatively larger battery. The model might also have a shoulder button but all these are just predictions and nothing can be certain until 1st December. We also know that Qualcomm traditionally rolls out its new flagship product in December. So, there are high chances that these gaming gadgets will be in our hands by the Q1 of 2021.

In terms of which company will be looking after which field of product development, Asus is going with the hardware part thus responsible for both designing and developing while Qualcomm has the responsibility of industrial design and “software integration optimizing its Snapdragon 875 platform”. The Snapdragon 875 SoC is most likely to have an Ardeno series GPU. Now, the question is which one will be better, the upgraded Ardeno GPU or GeForce mobile GPU.

Qualcomm
Image Source: pocketnow.com

A joint partnership of Qualcomm and Asus

Not only the company is building the product together but also buying the components together as well. Sources have informed Digitimes that the agreements between Qualcomm and Asus also clearly mention the joint purchasing of components required for making these gaming smartphones (both Asus ROG gaming phones and Qualcomm gaming phones). The electronic devices that are mentioned in the agreement are screens, memory, camera modules, cooling solutions, and batteries.

Buying the components together is a very smart tactic to reduce the production cost and thus maximize the profit. Moreover, it is Asus that has created the entire series of ROG mobile gaming phones that have kept on impressing the users consistently. So, through the joint cost of purchasing Asus might have better bargaining power on this agreement later to boost its line of production. Also, we might find some analogous relationship between the core design of Qualcomm gaming smartphones and ROG as well as the later is monitoring the entire hardware development.

Production

After the joint partnership, both Qualcomm and Asus expect to produce a million units of the gaming smartphones annually. Out of the expected one million smartphones, half of the gaming phones will be launched from Asus as ROG gaming phones and the other half will be Qualcomm branded gaming smartphones. If you are planning to buy a gaming phone you might just want to wait for this one. Because with Asus’s designing which sells one of the best gaming smartphones and laptops, the technology of this new Qualcomm’s gaming phone is going to be exciting as well.

Apart from the upcoming Qualcomm’s smartphones designed for gaming, some of the best gaming phones of this year are Honor 9X Pro, Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max, OnePlus 8 Pro, etc. So, after the launch of this product, you can compare the phones and make the choice yourself.

Qualcomm

Qualcomm announced Snapdragon 750G SoC, Enabling Truly Global 5G, and HDR Gaming

Leave a Comment / Artificial Intellegence, News, Tech News / By

Qualcomm Technologies are always on top when it comes to global connectivity and leading wireless technology. Many multinational companies are working tirelessly to bring more advancement incorporated in the 5G network, but currently, Qualcomm is playing its ace. On 22nd September 2020, Qualcomm Technologies announced a new mobile platform, Qualcomm Snapdragon 750G 5G Mobile Platform. This is a true 5G mobile platform offered by the company and will be added to the Snapdragon 7-Series.

The 750G 5G will offer a truly impeccable 5G mobile platform for the users that will ensure excellent global connectivity, high-quality gaming, and on-device AI. The Snapdragon 7-Series has witnessed a lot of new design launches and every time it has turned out to be a bit hit. And, with the 5G global connectivity, the excitement among users will increase by several folds.

Kedar Kondap, VP of product management, Qualcomm Technologies, said that the company is looking for more ways to support the needs of OEM customers as they are growing every day. The new Snapdragon 750G Mobile Platform will provide a handful of premium features to a wider user base. Now, let’s have a more detailed look at its features.

Features of the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 750G

The Snapdragon 750G 5G Mobile Platform runs in an X52 5G Modern-RF System. The system supports mmWave and sub-6GHz, both standalone (SA) and non-standalone (NSA) nodes, TDD, FDD, and Dynamic Spectrum Sharing (DSS) as well. The platform provides both global roaming and global multi-SIM. With these highlighted features any device that runs in Snapdragon 750G will support multi-gigabit connections. This means the users can download and upload files within the blink of an eye. Gone are those when we use to have 2G speed internet connectivity even to download big files. Both the speed and the limit of data have expanded just in a couple of years.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 750G SoC
Image Source: firstpost.com

As I mentioned earlier, the platform has been made compatible with high-quality gaming as well, the new Snapdragon 750G offers Qualcomm Snapdragon Elite Gaming. This new feature allows low-latency gameplay thus making the platform smoother and better in terms of quality. The platform has also incorporated Qualcomm Adreno 619 GPU that will provide better graphics quality making the scenes look more real. The users can also stream games from 5G cloud gaming platforms.

5th Generation Qualcomm AI Engine

AI has already taken over most of the industries in a diversified field. The capability of a machine to understand human intelligence has unlocked many new opportunities and paved a way for a better understanding of the customers. After all, the main goal is to give a better experience to the users. The Qualcomm AI Engine creates a better interaction with the smart camera and video, voice recognition and translation, advanced imaging based on AI, etc. The new Qualcomm AI Engine powering the Snapdragon 750G provides a 20% sharp improvement in functioning (smart detections and functions that are based on AI) than 730G. In 750G Mobile Platform, the AI engine provides 4.0 Trillion Operations Per Second (TOPS).

The platform also has Qualcomm Kryo 570 CPU that enhances the overall performance consequently user experience as well. The 750G mobile platform also has Qualcomm Sensing Hub that combines multiple data streams to work in a better way. For example, the Snapdragon 750G 5G Mobile Platform has Qualcomm’s AI-based audio and voice communication suite. This helps in canceling the noise or background voices as the system enables AI-based echo cancellation automatically. Thus it provides a better experience while voice calling or voice assistant tasks.

What experts have to say?

Andreas Bussmann, Program Manager 5G devices, Deutsche Telekom, said that Deutsche and Qualcomm have a very strategic collaboration. They hope this new Snapdragon 750G 5G will scale the 5G network and improve user experience. Chris Emmons, Executive Director Device and Product Marketing, Verizon said that with Qualcomm coming up with superior solutions, it will help run the 5G devices their customer relies on. Xiaomi works in collaboration with Qualcomm and they will launch the first commercial smartphone that will have Snapdragon 750G 5G connectivity. The commercial devices having Snapdragon 750G are expected to roll out by the end of this year.

Reliance Jio

Qualcomm Newest Backer for Ambani-led Reliance Jio Group

Leave a Comment / start-up, Tech News / By

Reliance has come out with quite a few big announcements in the past month or so. It is clear that the Mukesh-Ambani-led company is planning something huge this year. Recently, Qualcomm became the newest backer of Reliance Jio. Reports flooded in yesterday, stating that the high-profile company had bought into Ambani’s Reliance Jio Platform. Here’s a look at everything you need to know about this new investment, and what it means for Reliance.

Investments in JIO

Over the past 12 weeks, Reliance JIO raised over $15.7 billion from a plethora of investors. As per reports, Qualcomm will be putting in $97 million into Reliance Jio for a 0.15% equity stake. Furthermore, the investment will occur on a fully diluted basis within the country’s biggest telecom operator. The statement outlined that Qualcomm would help Jio Platforms with their advanced 5G infrastructure, making things easier for their Indian customers. After Facebook buying a 9.99% stake for Rs 43,574 crore, Qualcomm is another large American company to invest in JIO. Headquartered in California, Qualcomm specialises in 4G and 5G technology enabling. Also, it files the highest number of patents in India, being a major player in the smartphone-chip space.

Reliance JIO Story

In India, Reliance Jio competes directly with Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea. However, since inception, it has come out as a potent disruptor, gaining market share rapidly due to great marketing, and incredible cut-rate plans. Over the course of four years, it has grown to almost 400 million subscribers, becoming the world’s second-largest internet player. Reliance JIO has dominated the Indian telecom market while keeping the metric of average revenue per user at par with rivals. The parent company of JIO, Reliance Industries is India’s highest-valued firm with several high-profile investors. JIO too has been raking up investors, of the likes of, Facebook, Intel and even General Atlantic. Through these investments, Jio Platforms has sold approximately 25% stake, as a means to raise more capital.

JIO Services

Reliance’s digital service units also features an array of digital services, such as streaming for music, movies, shows and TV and even sports. To the tally of services, it recently added a video conferencing application just earlier this month. As per Qualcomm’s Chief Executive Steve Mollenkopf, Jio Platforms is planning on delivering a new set of services to the Indian public in the months to come. He also stated that 5G will help revolutionise the Indian infrastructure, transforming every industry within the country. Since Jio has led India’s digital revolution via an array of technological capabilities, Qualcomm will do everything it can to further this revolution. 

Political Reasons at Play

As per certain experts within the field, Mukesh Ambani’s closeness with BJP, which rules India, is helping make JIO all the more attractive. Due to this closeness, buying into JIO, might help them negotiate better regulations, and lower the burden they currently face within the country. However, most of these are obscure reports and speculation, as the investors do not want to publicly talk of their political connections. Furthermore, the global initiative to cut back on the reliance on China is also helping JIO get global backing. Both India and the US have been taking proactive steps to reduce their dependency on China. Just recently, India banned the use of over 58 Chinese applications and services, including TikTok. In line with this stand, Reliance JIO does not have any Chinese investor on-board.

Through a statement, Ambani expressed his joy over the collaboration, calling Qualcomm a valued partner. He also stated that the companies share a common vision of building a global digital network that allows everyone to benefit from the connectivity it provides. This is the thirteenth consecutive deal for JIO, making it the most extensive continuous fundraising by any company in the world. In comparison, India’s start-ups raised just around Rs 1.10 lakh crore last year, which was also its best year. Meanwhile, Reliance Industries has now raised Rs 118,318.45 crore from some of the world’s biggest tech-space investors.

Apple and Intel

Apple and Intel Agrees on Apple Acquiring the Intel’s Smartphone Modem Business for $1B

Leave a Comment / News, Tech News / By

Apple, through a blog post, announced on Thursday that it is going to acquire the majority of Intel’s smartphone modem business. According to the post, over 2200 Intel employees will switch to Apple. The agreement between Apple and Intel also includes the acquisition of IP and equipment from Intel and the payable amount for Apple is set to be $1 billion.

The deal between Apple and Intel is no surprise for most of the people, as there have been rumours making rounds that Apple will be taking over the Intel’s modem business so that it will not have to rely on other companies for the modems for its smartphones.

After the deal is closed, Apple will be independently building its own 5G modems for iPhones. Recently the company settled its dispute with its longtime modem supplier Qualcomm. But it seems Apple is no more interested in taking the help of a third party supplier for the equipment. The company will also be taking over the right on Intel’s 17,000 wireless technology patents.

Apple and Intel
Image Source: appleworld

“We’ve worked with Intel for many years and know this team shares Apple’s passion for designing technologies that deliver the world’s best experiences for our users. Apple is excited to have so many excellent engineers join our growing cellular technologies group, and know they’ll thrive in Apple’s creative and dynamic environment. They, together with our significant acquisition of innovative IP, will help expedite our development on future products and allow Apple to further differentiate moving forward.” said Johny Srouji SVP Apple.

Apple leads towards in-house production

Apple and Intel broke the news two months after the former made a settlement with Qualcomm in April. In fact, Intel had also announced that it plans to stop all its operations of producing smartphone modems after the two companies had ended their years’ long-running dispute. However, Intel will still be developing the modems for PCs, laptops, Internet of Things, etc.

According to Apple, the two companies will close the deal by the end of 2019, after going through all the legalities. Beliving the rumours, Apple may start 5G modem production as soon as the mid of 2020. The deal will lead Apple towards in-house production, and this way, it can focus better on the quality of its products as well as save a lot of money.