Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 demand to outstrip supply

Qualcomm's Snapdragon S4 chip will be powering some of the most anticipated Android devices of the next few months, including the HTC One S and AT&T's HTC One X, not to mention the ASUS Padfone and rumored devices from Sony. But in its recent Q2 earnings call, the chipmaker admitted that supply of the S4 chips may be unable to meet demand until the end of the year, meaning that device manufacturers may have to look elsewhere for alternative silicon. The lack of supply is likely due to difficulties with the 28nm manufacturing process used to build the S4 chips, which have been reported over the past couple of months.

Speaking in the earnings call, Qualcomm President and COO Steven Mollenkopf said the company was working with its customers (manufacturers) to swap-in alternative Qualcomm chipsets, though he admitted "we do expect to see some alternative non-Qualcomm chipsets being used to solve that issue as well."

While this probably won't impact S4 devices currently on the market, or about to go on sale, it may cause OEMs to think twice about using the chips in devices due to come to market later in the year, particularly where LTE connectivity isn't essential. In the mobile device space, Qualcomm faces competition from the likes of NVIDIA, Texas Instruments and Samsung, not to mention Intel later in the year.

via BBC News

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