Qualcomm Accelerates IoT Ecosystem Development

— Qualcomm has served more than 9,000 customers through indirect channels,

And use its cutting-edge technology to help a wide range of manufacturers and solution providers seize the huge opportunities of the Internet of Things—

Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., a subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated (NASDAQ: QCOM), today discussed the growth momentum across multiple IoT verticals at its Internet of Things (IoT) Industry Analyst Event. The company also announced that it has expanded its product distribution channels and now serves more than 9,000 customers through indirect sales channels, including more than 25 global distributors, a nearly 20-fold increase from 2014. The expansion of indirect channels complements direct sales activities and helps a wide range of customers develop exciting new consumer and industrial IoT solutions using Qualcomm Technologies' system-on-chip (SoC), modem and connectivity solutions. To further help customers, Qualcomm Technologies has made more than 30 production-ready reference design platforms available through ODMs, including voice-activated home control hubs, smart displays, smart speakers, connected cameras, smart home appliances and smart watches. These reference designs are part of Qualcomm Technologies' core strategy to continuously advance its technology into industries with greater growth opportunities.

“We are committed to providing innovative technologies to help expand the IoT ecosystem. We want to make it easier for companies of all sizes to design innovative IoT solutions and realize commercial implementation, so they can seize the huge opportunities of IoT and succeed,” said Cristiano Amon, president of Qualcomm Incorporated. “A few years ago, we established a strategy to promote our cutting-edge technologies into high-growth opportunity industries, and this strategy is paying off. We have achieved solid double-digit growth in the IoT field over the past few years, and we expect our revenue in this field to exceed $1 billion this fiscal year. By reusing our investment and R&D in mobile technology, our business in the IoT field is growing healthily.”

Ecosystem Momentum

At the analyst event, Qualcomm Technologies executives discussed the overall momentum of the IoT and highlighted some of the growth segments. Qualcomm Technologies has achieved outstanding results in the diverse ecosystem of the IoT, supported by direct sales activities and expanded indirect sales channels.

In the field of industrial Internet of Things, including enterprises, manufacturing, retail, supply chain and public facilities, Qualcomm Technologies' modems and SoCs are providing key connectivity and edge processing capabilities for products such as retail terminals and industrial handheld devices. The company's revenue from this field is growing rapidly and is expected to double its revenue from the industrial Internet of Things in this fiscal year compared to two years ago. Qualcomm Technologies expects that the serviceable market size of the industrial Internet of Things will achieve a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of nearly 20% in the next few years, and expects the company's revenue growth in the industrial Internet of Things to exceed this growth rate.

In the smart home sector, Qualcomm Technologies' innovative mesh Wi-Fi and 11ax solutions are further helping it consolidate its leading position in the Wi-Fi retail market, including the home access point and router markets. Mainstream manufacturers in the mesh Wi-Fi market are relying on Qualcomm Technologies' solutions to provide wireless connectivity throughout the home. With its advantages in home connectivity and the recent release of multiple products that support edge computing, on-device artificial intelligence (AI), and voice control, Qualcomm Technologies continues to expand its presence in the connected smart home market, including home appliances, lighting, and the recently launched smart display products, including the smart display jointly launched with Lenovo, which has won an important award. Qualcomm Technologies expects its SoC chipset revenue for the home entertainment segment to quadruple that of the same period last year in fiscal 2018.

In the camera field, Qualcomm Technologies' products can support excellent image quality and terminal-side artificial intelligence, and have been favored by mainstream brands of enterprise and consumer cameras such as Lighthouse, Ricoh THETA, Cisco Meraki, and KEDACOM. The company expects that its SoC chipset revenue for networked cameras will achieve a year-on-year growth of 120% in fiscal 2018.

In the areas of voice and music, more than 1,300 products have adopted the popular Qualcomm® aptX™ wireless audio technology, including nearly 100 products using the flagship aptX HD codec, which transmits crisp, high-resolution audio over Bluetooth. Top brands using aptX and aptX HD include Audio-Technica, Beyerdynamic, Bowers & Wilkins and LG. In the future, there will be many high-quality wireless speakers, headphones, hearables and earbuds, such as the OPPO O-Free wireless Bluetooth headphones based on Qualcomm Technologies' latest Bluetooth audio SoC .

In the field of smart wearables, more than 200 wearable terminals have adopted Qualcomm Technologies' solutions, and this number is growing at an average rate of one new customer design per week. The Qualcomm® Snapdragon Wear™ platform is designed to meet the performance, power consumption, sensor and connection technology requirements of the smartwatch, children's watch and smart tracker market segments. According to IDC data, as of the first quarter of 2018, the number of terminals equipped with the Snapdragon Wear platform accounted for the majority of Wear OS terminal shipments and is increasing. Qualcomm Technologies is also driving the evolution of children's watches to 4G, including the release of a dedicated platform for this market segment in June 2018.