Qualcomm boasts gigahertz phone chip, AT&T smartbook and LTE

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Qualcomm boasts gigahertz phone chip, AT&T smartbook and LTE

By CAROLINE GABRIEL

Published: 13 November, 2009

Qualcomm unleashed a barrage of news at its New York analyst day yesterday, but the highlights were the first sight of its combined 3G/LTE chipsets; a processor that drives gigahertz performance into more mainstream devices; and the first 'smartbook' based on its platform, unveiled by Lenovo and destined for AT&T.

Qualcomm and Freescale adopted the term 'smartbook' earlier this year for a new category of ultra-mobile but high performance web devices that fit between a smartphone and a netbook. The larger company had been working on silicon for this type of device for a couple of years before that, based around its Snapdragon MID processor. (The company is in legal dispute with Germany's 'Smartbook AG' over the use of the word, which is trademarked, but while this, temporarily at least, prevents the US firm from using the name in Germany, it did not seem to have any qualms in the US launches.)

Freescale was actually the first to power a product in this new category, the Sharp Netwalker, which was unveiled in September for Japan. The first Qualcomm-based contender is from Lenovo, though no details (such as price or availability) were released, as the product will be officially launced at the Consumer Electronics Show in January. But the announcement fits well with AT&T's stated strategy of reaching well beyond phones into any devices - such as ebook readers or media players - that can carry a wireless connection (and subscription).

The new multimode chipsets are aimed at vendors and carriers who will start to introduce LTE in 2010 onwards and will need a high degree of coexistence with HSPA. Although commercial handsets with multimode LTE functionality are not expected until at least 2011, Qualcomm has started testing its new platform with suppliers including Huawei, LG, Novatel, Sierra Wireless and ZTE - all strong players in dongles, which will be the first mass device category for LTE. The chipsets include a dual-carrier HSPA+ and a multimode 3G/LTE offering and should appear in commercial products such as USB modems in the second half of next year.

With these cutting edge products only coming onstream late in the year, Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs was clear that 2010 would be a highly competitive time and largely a "battleground for marketshare" in the mass handset market with intense price competition.

Meanwhile, while the gigahertz Snapdragon has appeared in MIDs and some very high end phones like Toshiba TG01 and HTC HD2, Qualcomm is now pushing this speed level lower down the food chain with the release of the MSM7x30 family of phone processors. These chips use the same Scorpion ARM-based CPU that is at the heart of Snapdragon and can run between 800MHz and 1GHz. The products can do 720p HD video (encode/decode), 2D and 3D graphics, and support surround sound, integrated GPS and a 12-megapixel camera as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and both variants of FM Radio 3G. This shows Qualcomm making a serious play to catch up with Nvidia Tegra and Texas Instruments OMAP on the heavy duty multimedia front, which will be critical to keeping or winning custom among the most media-driven handset designers such as Samsung. The chips support all major smartphone operating systems except iPhone and will ship next year, probably appearing in devices for next fall.

More on Qualcomm's announcements to follow next week.