Qualcomm Inc, the world’s biggest mobile phone chipmaker, yesterday said it is working with Chinese chipmaker Allwinner Technology Co Ltd (全志) to provide long-term evolution (LTE) processors for Chinese original equipment manufacturers (OEM) of tablet computers.
The announcement follows rival Intel Corp’s announcement of a strategic partnership with Chinese chipmaker Rockchips Electronics Co (瑞芯微) last year to use Intel’s Atom processors for entry-level tablets.
With Allwinner’s share of the Chinese market and Qualcomm’s leading products, the partnership should create a win-win situation for both companies, said Tim McDonough, a vice president of Qualcomm Technologies Inc, a fully-owned subsidiary of Qualcomm.
“There is a market transition. LTE has literally exploded in China. Allwinner can leverage Qualcomm’s LTE competitive advantages and benefit,” he said.
The collaboration will help accelerate Qualcomm Technologies’ expansion into China’s tablet and other markets, as Allwinner supplies chips to a lot of global brands, McDonough said.
Taiwan’s MediaTek Inc (聯發科), Rockchip and Intel were the top three suppliers of tablet application processors in China last quarter, holding a combined 59 percent share, according to Digitimes Research statistics.
Shipments of tablet chips in China are expected to grow 18.6 percent this quarter to 29.3 million units from 24.7 million units last quarter, Digitimes said.
Qualcomm Technologies said it would extend its Snapdragon processors into tablets, while Allwinner would offer system solution services for OEMs to turn out 4G LTE-enabled tablets, running on Google Inc’s Android system.
Those tablets will be powered by Qualcomm Technologies’ Snapdragon 410 and 210 processors, the company said in a statement.
Those two processors support global LTE modes, including LTE FDD (frequency division duplex) and LTE TDD (time division duplex), which have been adopted by major Chinese telecom operators China Mobile Ltd (中國移動) and China Telecom Inc (中國電信).
The processors also support Qualcomm’s quick charge 2.0 technology, which offers up to 75 percent faster battery charging.
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