Snapdragons: Where Scorpions Hide

Last week's announcement of the Snapdragon platform by Qualcomm went barely noticed. Looks like the majority of QCOM audience is focused on the royalty tension with Nokia. This is as expected. News is always driven by emotions, and emotions in turn, are driven by the FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt) factor. Often it is difficult to spot the real gems, and the Snapdragon seems to be the real gem.

We have talked about convergence here many times. You probably can feel it coming. Even the cheapest mobile phones offer games and music playback. The more advanced ones have email readers and cameras, while the top of the line models can be used as personal navigation devices, either with built in GPS receiver or with an external "Bluetooth GPS Antenna". But at the same time when phones become converged teleputers, there are plenty of other devices screaming for connectivity. iPods, Zunes, PSPs, GameBoys, Nuvis, digital cameras... Just show me any electronic gizmo that is not built around a microprocessor and that wouldn't benefit from some kind of digital radio communications, be it cellular (HSDPA/HSUPA included), WiFi, or Bluetooth. That is what the Snapdragon is about. It is a chip with a powerful, yet very energy - efficient microprocessor (the Scorpion) and a palette of all mobile connectivity options. It can be programmed to decode MP3's (to be the heart of a next generation wireless iPod) or can be programmed to run games (being the heart of the next generation GameBoy) or can be programmed to operate a digital camera (with wireless photo sharing), thanks to on board CMOS sensor interface (up to 12 Megapixels). Suddenly the market for Qualcomm chipsets is multiplied several times.

Along with the announcement of the Snapdragon, Qualcomm announced Samsung as the first customer for the platform. I wonder if this means we are finally going to see a usable Origami - class device - a light web tablet with universal connectivity options, and 24hr battery life?