In a press release, Qualcomm stated that it has agreed on a seven-year extension of its patent license agreement for networking technologies with Samsung. This agreement covers 3G, 4G, 5G, and the upcoming 6G networking technologies. This should mean the Korean firm will equip its Galaxy devices with Qualcomm-made network components for years to come. This partnership doesn’t only concern smartphones, though. Samsung will also use Qualcomm technologies across various other product categories, including tablets, PCs, extended reality, and more. To that end, the two companies have agreed to expand the scope of the partnership as well. So we should see Qualcomm powering more Galaxy devices than ever in the future. “Our relationship with Samsung has never been stronger. For more than two decades we’ve worked together to lead the industry and we are pleased to continue this strategic partnership to develop innovative technologies and products using Snapdragon platforms to power more Samsung premium devices globally,” said Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon.
Qualcomm will power the Samsung Galaxy S23 series globally
An immediate outcome of this extended and expanded partnership between Qualcomm and Samsung will be the latter using the next-gen Snapdragon processor in its Galaxy S23 series globally next year. For years, Galaxy flagships have come in two processor variants depending on the market. They usually ship with Snapdragon processors in the US and China, while Samsung’s in-house Exynos processors power the phones in most other regions. Since the performance gap between competing Snapdragon and Exynos solutions is widely documented (Snapdragon chips have historically outperformed Exynos), the Korean behemoth faced expected wrath from customers over this. As such, it has been reducing the share of its in-house chipsets. Almost three-fourths of the Galaxy S22 phones sold this year featured Qualcomm processors. From next year, Samsung is going all-Qualcomm. The American chipmaker has confirmed that its upcoming flagship mobile processor, which should go by the marketing name Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, will power the Galaxy S23 series globally. Samsung isn’t entirely giving up on in-house processors, though. It still plans to make flagship Exynos chipsets. Time will tell whether it can come back stronger and go neck-on-neck with Qualcomm.
