Qualcomm vs. Intel – Storm in a teacup.

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Qualcomm thrashes Intel but not where it really matters. 

• It appears that Qualcomm has once again demonstrated superiority over its peers when it comes to radio but I think it highly unlikely that users will notice.
• Radio performance analysis specialists Cellular Insights have run a series of tests on the iPhone 7 powered by Qualcomm’s MDM9645M modem and the iPhone 7 powered by Intel’s XMM7360 modem to compare radio performance.
• The results are startling and much more so than in the infamous “chipgate” episode where the A9 (iPhone 6s) made by TSMC resulted in 5-7% battery life than the same chip made by Samsung.
• In this case the Qualcomm modem has consistently outperformed the Intel modem on 4G by 30% when the signal was moderate and 75% when the signal was at its weakest.
• When the signal was at full strength, both modems performed similarly.
• This does not come as a huge surprise as Qualcomm modems have for years been consistently better at performing in non-ideal radio environments giving it a major point of differentiation.
• This difference is far greater than it was for chipgate but I doubt whether this is going to have users scrambling to check the model numbers of their devices prior to purchase.
  • First: Battery life is a major issue for every smartphone and is a concept that is very easily grasped by the consumer.
  • As long as there is a connection and the service works, most users will be satisfied, meaning that a difference in speed is less likely to be noticed.
  • A device that does not turn on or fails right at a critical moment is far more noticeable.
  • Second: Bleeding edge.
  • What Cellular Insights has measured is performance at the bleeding edge.
  • For example, in band 4 at -120dBm (very weak radio) Qualcomm manages around 30Mbps while Intel does around 12Mbps.
  • When I look at the Digital Life pie of smartphone usage there is not a single service that I think will be noticeably degraded by that difference to the point where the user will blame the radio.
  • Furthermore, almost all networks still have an underlay of 3G meaning that user will have some data coverage even in the advent that 4G fails completely.
• Most tellingly of all is the fact that the iPhone 7 has been widely available for over a month and there has been not a single murmur from reviewers or users that one version of the device has a better radio than the other.
• Consequently, I think that posterity will take note of this difference and move on with no real impact being felt in shipments of one variant or the other.
• However, for Qualcomm this is an important demonstration that it remains peerless when it comes to radio modems.
• This is critically important as this test is likely to influence device makers when they are selecting which modems to use in their products giving Qualcomm slightly better pricing power.
• The general consensus out there is that radio modems are beginning to commoditise as LTE matures as a standard but this test clearly shows that this is not the case.
• Despite this good news, Qualcomm still needs to expand its horizons into other device categories to keep growth going as smartphones are grinding to halt.
• This is where its smart drone, IP camera reference platform and potential purchase of NXP semiconductors come into play.
• This is bad news for Intel but I think it can quite easily shake it off as its performance inside the iPhone 7 is clearly good enough.