Owners of laptops built on Qualcomm Inc’s new chips would be able to use the computers as much as they want without having to worry about the battery dying, the San Diego, California-based company said yesterday.
Qualcomm is providing the semiconductors underpinning Microsoft Corp’s new breed of Copilot+ PCs that feature the software maker’s latest and best artificial intelligence (AI) enhancements.
“We’re really making history together and the industry is starting to take notice,” Qualcomm chief executive officer Cristiano Amon said in a keynote address at Computex Taipei. “I believe it’s as significant as Windows 95.”
Photo: Bloomberg, Annabelle Chih
Qualcomm and some of its peers have spent more than a decade trying to loosen the dependency of the PC industry on Intel Corp and provide a fresh set of key components using the Arm Holdings PLC technology that is dominant in the smartphone industry.
Windows laptops based on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite systems would have as much as twice the battery life of traditional counterparts, and when it comes to running some AI features, the power efficiency would be more than 100 times greater, Amon said said.
“The PC is truly reborn. It’s a new era for the PC, and that is happening with a combination of Snapdragon X Elite and Copilot+,” Amon said.
The CEO’s bullishness about the new devices is part of his attempt to diversify Qualcomm’s sources of revenue — the company’s mobile chips are ubiquitous across the smartphone industry, but it trails rivals in other segments.
The greater efficiency and connectivity offered by Qualcomm’s products would help it win share in a number of new markets, including automotive and computing, Amon has said.
Last month, Microsoft unveiled its Copilot+ computers infused with AI features.
The machines from Microsoft’s Surface line — all based on Qualcomm chips — and manufacturing partners would offer more power and be faster than Apple Inc’s top-of-the-line MacBook Air, Microsoft said.
Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想), Dell Technologies Inc, HP Inc, Asustek Computer Inc (華碩) and Acer Inc (宏碁) are among the partners who have announced they would release Snapdragon-powered Copilot+ laptops.
“Qualcomm is now in this neighborhood to stay, we’re not going anywhere, and we’re very happy to be working with our partners,” Amon said, wearing a pair of white sneakers with the Copilot logo printed on them.
Microsoft corporate vice president and head of Windows and devices Pavan Davuluri joined Amon on stage and the two men hugged to underscore the warmth of their business partnership.
Amon ended his speech with an apparent dig at Apple — whose high-end Mac computers have long competed with premium PCs — showing the audience a short video of the actor Justin Long trying to order a Snapdragon PC after being bombarded by notifications on his Mac laptop.
Long was featured in the popular Apple ads from the 2000s in which he played a hip character representing Macs opposite John Hodgman as a stuffy and boring PC.
“What?” Long said while looking at the camera in the Qualcomm video. “Things change.”
Additional reporting by AFP
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