QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM) has announced plans to release a processor chip for drones. The new chip, titled Snapdragon Flight, is aimed at stabilizing and improving business for the tech giant. It is important to note here that the company has been largely responsible for popularization of smartphones around the world. It was Qualcomm’s unique, yet powerful Snapdragon chips are at the heart of majority smartphones.
Qualcomm originally manufactures chips for smartphones, however, the growing sales of Apple’s iPhone has meant a decline in business for the company. The iPhone makes use of only some of Qualcomm’s technology, but does not utilize the Snapdragon processor chips. Consequently, Qualcomm’s sales have been declining since the beginning of this year. However, it had still managed to report $26 billion in sales in the preceding year.
Now, Qualcomm hopes to do the same for drones as it did for smartphones, make them easier and cheaper to manufacture. A recent press release from the company revealed that the new chip would be containing a 4K video camera, wireless connectivity support through Bluetooth, Wifi and LTE as well as satellite navigation and location capabilities. By making sure that all these capabilities are pre-installed, Qualcomm is hoping that it can slice off a major part of the manufacturing costs.
The promise of this new equipment can be seen by the fact that even before the product has gone into production; it has already attracted a buyer. Yuneec, the China based drone manufacturer, has requested to become the first buyer for the unique piece of technology. While the engineers at Qualcomm are busy meeting expectations, Yuneec has already started working on the initial design of a proto-type for the chip.
QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM) has lost 0.46% of its share value and is trading at $54.41, on September 14, 11:06AM. The company currently has a market cap of $85.44 billion and a 52-week average of $52.59-$78.53.
