14 DAY TRIAL // US chip giant Qualcomm has entered a partnership with budget tablet chip maker Allwinner that will supposedly help the former get its chips inside low-end tablets.
The two companies announced their agreement in a press release where they explained that the alliance was meant to push LTE budget tablets into the mainstream.
Allwinner is a fabless semiconductor company hailing from China that has been designing its own chips that usually go into low-cost tablets sold in Asia. But most of these tablets are Wi-Fi only.
On the other hand, Qualcomm has a series of cheap chips with integrated 4G LTE support, including the Snapdragon 210 and Snapdragon 410 processors. The platforms also support dual SIM cards and Qualcomm Quick Charge technology.
While Qualcomm chips are present in slates and smartphones produced by device makers that sell their products in the US and Europe, its silicone products aren’t very popular with budget mobile manufacturers in Asia.
Qualcomm wants to do more business in Asia
By partnering up with Allwinner, Qualcomm gets to make a greater push for the Asian market, while the low-cost chip maker can offer 4G LTE-capable chips for tablets without having to design its own 4G platform in house.
At the moment, budget tablet makers in China will go for offerings from Allwinner, Rockchip and MediaTek, while Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chips are viewed as a more premium alternative.
But the new partnership is bound to change things. And by having Allwinner’s support, Qualcomm might finally start to get more traction in the country.
The agreement might seem odd at first, but as we explained above, it does make sense. On the other hand, it’s not the first time an international chip maker of Qualcomm’s caliber partners up with a low-cost chip maker from China.
Back in May 2014, Intel and Rockchip announced a strategic partnership to develop the so-called SoFIA chips for low-end tablets.
As Intel was increasingly trying to penetrate the tablet market, the company recognized the need to dominate the price-sensitive, entry-level tablet space in China, where competition is quite fierce.
However, SoFIA didn’t really take off and not many tablets were launched bundling this platform. Hopefully, Qualcomm's and Allwinner’s fate will be different.