Latest news with #AlexKatouzian
Time of India
22-07-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Qualcomm aims to diversify revenue base amid muted global smartphone growth
New Delhi: Chipmaker Qualcomm is actively pursuing a strategy of revenue diversification, aiming to shift away from catering predominantly to the smartphone industry into new categories, as global smartphone shipment growth remains muted, a top senior executive told ET. Currently, around 70% of Qualcomm's revenues come from the mobile segment. The company aims to reduce this to 50% by 2029, said Alex Katouzian, Group General Manager, Mobile, Compute, & XR (MCX), Qualcomm. He added that the diversification is on track, with several emerging areas performing well and contributing increasingly to the topline. 'The PC segment is on track with the primary focus being on brand pushing and channel penetration. The XR (Mixed Reality) segment is doing really well with a growing customer base that now includes Android XR and AOSP Android, not just Meta. Qualcomm's chips are designed into practically every solution that's out there in the XR space,' Katouzian said. The executive said the wearables and hearables business for the company is expected to double in the next 3-4 years, while automotive and IoT are doing well. The shift in strategy comes with the global smartphone market reaching maturity and experiencing slower growth and periodic contraction, experts said. This makes it increasingly challenging for Qualcomm to sustain strong revenue growth solely from the mobile segment. 'The shift is not about consumers giving up smartphones, as the smartphone is "very difficult to replace" and ambient computing is seen as a "subtle supplement" to it. Instead, the strategy is to move from an "app centric and smartphone at the center" model to "the human at the center with agents becoming the user experience and the user interface," the executive said. Qualcomm's diversification also comes amidst its rivals strengthening their position in the market. The company is facing increasing challenges from Taiwan-based MediaTek, which now commands a larger volume market share than Qualcomm in India and other markets. According to Counterpoint Research, MediaTek secured a 38% market share globally in the smartphone SoC (System-on-Chip) shipments in Q1 2025, while Qualcomm trailed at 28%. That said, Qualcomm's revenues from the mobile segment remains much higher than MediaTek's after its focus on increasing its presence in the premium end of the market. Katouzian asserted that volume is not the key to the company's growth, but rather the share of the wallet. 'While MediaTek might ship more smartphone chipsets by volumes, Qualcomm is far ahead by value because Qualcomm's share of the premium tier is so high in the smartphone market, yielding a much higher value, and triple quadruple the margin compared to what MediaTek can achieve across value-tier phones,' he said.
Time of India
22-07-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Qualcomm aims to diversify revenue base amid muted smartphone growth: Exec
Qualcomm is strategically diversifying its revenue streams to reduce reliance on the smartphone market, aiming for a 50% contribution by 2029. This shift includes focusing on PC, XR, wearables, automotive, and IoT sectors, driven by maturing smartphone growth and competition from rivals like MediaTek. Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Chipmaker Qualcomm is actively pursuing a strategy of revenue diversification, aiming to shift away from catering predominantly to the smartphone industry into new categories, as global smartphone shipment growth remains muted, a senior executive told around 70% of Qualcomm's revenues come from the mobile segment. The company aims to reduce this to 50% by 2029, said Alex Katouzian , Group General Manager, Mobile, Compute & XR (MCX), added that the diversification is on track, with several emerging areas performing well and contributing increasingly to the topline.'The PC segment is on track, with the primary focus being on brand pushing and channel penetration. The XR (Mixed Reality) segment is doing really well, with a growing customer base that now includes Android XR and AOSP Android, not just Meta. Qualcomm's chips are designed into practically every solution that's out there in the XR space,' Katouzian executive said the wearables and hearables business for the company is expected to double in the next 3–4 years, while automotive and IoT are doing shift in strategy comes with the global smartphone market reaching maturity and experiencing slower growth and periodic contraction, experts said. This makes it increasingly challenging for Qualcomm to sustain strong revenue growth solely from the mobile segment.'The shift is not about consumers giving up smartphones, as the smartphone is very difficult to replace and ambient computing is seen as a subtle supplement to it. Instead, the strategy is to move from an app-centric and smartphone-at-the-center model to the human at the center, with agents becoming the user experience and the user interface,' the executive diversification also comes amid its rivals strengthening their position in the market. The company is facing increasing challenges from Taiwan-based MediaTek, which now commands a larger volume market share than Qualcomm in India and other to Counterpoint Research, MediaTek secured a 38% market share globally in smartphone SoC (System-on-Chip) shipments in Q1 2025, while Qualcomm trailed at 28%. That said, Qualcomm's revenues from the mobile segment remain much higher than MediaTek's after its focus on increasing its presence in the premium end of the asserted that volume is not the key to the company's growth, but rather the share of the wallet.'While MediaTek might ship more smartphone chipsets by volume, Qualcomm is far ahead by value because Qualcomm's share of the premium tier is so high in the smartphone market, yielding a much higher value and triple or quadruple the margin compared to what MediaTek can achieve across value-tier phones,' he said.
Time of India
22-07-2025
- Business
- Time of India
India-based LLMs perfect to push local AI use, smart glass experience: Qualcomm's Alex Katouzian
India-based large language models (LLMs) will be perfect to push AI use cases in the country and even enhance the experience of extended reality like smart glasses as they are expected to be better trained to understand local languages, dialect, etc, a senior global official of chipset firm Qualcomm said on Monday. Speaking on the sidelines of " Snapdragon for India -- XR Day", Qualcomm Technologies Group General Manager for Mobile, Compute and XR (MCX), Alex Katouzian said original AI didn't understand the dialect properly. "I think it's key that either an OEM (original equipment maker) or a distribution company teams up with a model manufacturer or model developer to make that a reality or they develop their own model. " India-based LLMs are perfect. Local models understand the use cases of local people. They understand the dialects, they understand where they go and what they want to do. It's much more amenable, in my opinion, than just a generic model coming through," he said. Katouzian said India is a massive market for smart glasses, including sunglasses. He said traditional glasses can be replicated by smart glasses that can allow them to actually talk and experience AI capability, AI assistants, and agents all day long. The more AI use cases become available in localised languages, the better it is going to be, he said. "We think it's going to be a big, big market." He said smart glasses are going to be the next computing devices after mobile phones. "PCs allow you to create documents and create presentations and do a lot of creative types of apps and environments. Next came the phone. The phone complemented what you did on the PC, but the PC is running in tens of watts. The next computing device will be the glasses or the headset. In many cases, and especially for AR (augmented reality), it's running in sub-one watt power," Katouzian said. He said sophistication and understanding of new technology in the Indian market is going up very high. "My understanding is there's over 350 million Gen Z customers in India, all of who are looking for not just regular tech, but lifestyle tech, something that can embed into their life. Glasses are a perfect fit for that because if you have a pair of glasses that can give you access to more information, either connected to your phone or connected to your watch, then it becomes kind of a lifestyle situation," Katouzian said. He said Qualcomm is working with Indian companies like Jio, Flipkart, QWR, Lenskart, etc, for the development of smart glasses and push for adoption of local AI models and use case to enhance their experience in the country.
Time of India
21-07-2025
- Business
- Time of India
India-based LLMs perfect to push local AI use, smart glass experience: Qualcomm official
Academy Empower your mind, elevate your skills India-based large language models (LLMs) will be perfect to push AI use cases in the country and even enhance the experience of extended reality like smart glasses as they are expected to be better trained to understand local languages, dialect, etc, a senior global official of chipset firm Qualcomm said on on the sidelines of " Snapdragon for India -- XR Day", Qualcomm Technologies Group General Manager for Mobile, Compute and XR (MCX), Alex Katouzian said original AI didn't understand the dialect properly."I think it's key that either an OEM (original equipment maker) or a distribution company teams up with a model manufacturer or model developer to make that a reality or they develop their own model. India-based LLMs are perfect. Local models understand the use cases of local people. They understand the dialects, they understand where they go and what they want to do. It's much more amenable, in my opinion, than just a generic model coming through," he said India is a massive market for smart glasses, including said traditional glasses can be replicated by smart glasses that can allow them to actually talk and experience AI capability, AI assistants, and agents all day more AI use cases become available in localised languages, the better it is going to be, he said. "We think it's going to be a big, big market."He said smart glasses are going to be the next computing devices after mobile phones."PCs allow you to create documents and create presentations and do a lot of creative types of apps and environments. Next came the phone. The phone complemented what you did on the PC, but the PC is running in tens of watts. The next computing device will be the glasses or the headset. In many cases, and especially for AR (augmented reality), it's running in sub-one watt power," Katouzian said sophistication and understanding of new technology in the Indian market is going up very high."My understanding is there's over 350 million Gen Z customers in India, all of who are looking for not just regular tech, but lifestyle tech, something that can embed into their life. Glasses are a perfect fit for that because if you have a pair of glasses that can give you access to more information, either connected to your phone or connected to your watch, then it becomes kind of a lifestyle situation," Katouzian said Qualcomm is working with Indian companies like Jio, Flipkart, QWR, Lenskart, etc, for the development of smart glasses and push for adoption of local AI models and use case to enhance their experience in the country.
Time of India
21-07-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Qualcomm sees 5G, AI-enabled smart glasses segment growing in India: Savi Soin
NEW DELHI: American chipmaker Qualcomm termed smart glasses as the next computing platform of the future, and said that it is bullish about its growth potential in digitally savvy India, combined with telecom carriers' fifth-generation ( 5G ) networks and artificial intelligence (AI). 'I think it will be amazing to see what smart glass can do for all of us. I feel it is the next computing platform of the future. We are very excited about it, and India, specifically, has very tech-savvy people. There are more than 300 million Gen Z citizens looking for different use cases, and 5G is just about everywhere,' Savi Soin , senior vice president, Qualcomm & president, Qualcomm India, said on Monday. 'So India is about to explode in terms of what spatial computing can do,' he said at the company's 'Snapdragon for India – XR Day'. He added that AI-enabled smart glasses are going to 'revolutionise everything we do'. Smart glasses, according to the San Diego-headquartered chip vendor, have applications in nearly all industry verticals, from education and healthcare to automobile and entertainment and productivity. Qualcomm offers the end-to-end stack for smart glasses, including chipsets and platforms, as well as, hardware and software development kits, enabling its original equipment manufacturer (OEM) and developer partners to build innovative use cases. More than 100 mixed reality (MR), virtual reality (VR), and augmented reality (AR) devices globally, including Meta Quest 2 and 3, Lenovo ThinkReality A3, Ray-Ban Meta collection, and others, use Snapdragon solutions. It has partnered with India's Lenskart to equip the latter's upcoming smart glasses. Lenskart earlier this year launched the 'Phonic' smart glasses with audio-enabled technology, priced at ₹4,000. 'Qualcomm has invested in CPU, GPU, NPU (neural processing unit), DSP (digital signal processor), camera, video, audio, low power, displays, etc., into growing our mobile business. And now deriving from the mobile business, we are expanding into the XR business, wearable business, PC business, automotive business, and the IoT businesses,' said Alex Katouzian, group general manager (mobile, compute, & XR), Qualcomm Technologies Inc. The combination of Qualcomm's Spaces platform with open-source codes, middleware and hardware-development platforms and interfaces has allowed more than '1000s of developers' to provide feedback to Qualcomm about its algorithms and hardware performance in spatial computing, he said. 'So we built a virtual cycle of feedback and improved our solutions over the years, and then, with our partners, Meta and Google Android XR, that platform opens up to all developers. And so our partnerships with these big platform providers allow us to access the development community. Combining all of these things, we have become the de facto platform of choice across all of the XR applications ,' Katouzian added. According to the International Data Corporation (IDC), the global AR/VR headset market posted a strong rebound in Q1 2025, growing 18.1% year-over-year. The resurgence was led by Meta, which captured 50.8% of the market, followed by XREAL (12.1%), and ByteDance (9.4%).
