Samsung is Considering Ditching Qualcomm Chips for the Galaxy S6 [Rumor]

[dgstorm]

In the past, Samsung has always launched two versions of their flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S series, but it's possible they might change that for the Galaxy S6. According to the latest intel, Samsung is not too thrilled with the heat dissipation on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 810. Because of this, they are considering dumping the Snapdragon 810 in favor of their own next-gen Exynos SoC.

Of course, the report qualifies this by indicating that if Qualcomm can eliminate the issues, it is likely that Samsung will stick with their usual plan of launching two different versions of the Galaxy S6 for different world-wide markets.

If they can't and Samsung has to use their own chips exclusively in the Galaxy S6, then we are likely to see major supply shortages and delays for Sammy's latest flagship.

The above image is a Samsung Galaxy S6 fan concept render found randomly on the web.

Source: BGR

 

[Ollie]

I could see them distancing themselves from Qualcomm simply due to the recent lawsuits. If they could ever release an Exynos with on board global LTE they wouldn't need Qualcomm anymore.

 

[hammerhead13]

Last Exynos CPU they used in US was with Note 2. Sadly this is where the Problem that the Note 2 can not achieve root with 4.4.2 anymore. The newer Exynos show to be real beasts though.

 

[Jonny Kansas]

Glad you touched on their ability to produce the chips in the OP.

Sammy is really making/thinking about some strange things after having announced that their mobile numbers were down last year and they were going to re-evaluate.

Rumors of buying BlackBerry, Tizen phone, now rumors of dropping Qualcomm chips for their own even though they've yet to prove they could make enough for a full run of a device.

They don't seem to be acting like a company that's trying to keep from losing market share and/or sell more devices to people who're already happy with what they have from them.

 

[Ollie]

The BlackBerry venture wouldn't be for their phone division. It would be for the patents. Blackberry has over a thousand enterprise patents.

I understand the Tizen move. After a phone launches that's the end of Samsung's profitability. Google takes over from there and makes billions off of app purchases made on Samsung's phones.

If anyone in the world could make enough SoCs for a product line launch it is Samsung. They already do it for Apple and themselves and with the partnership with the Global Foundry this could work easily.

 

[grenefroggie]

The BlackBerry venture wouldn't be for their phone division. It would be for the patents. Blackberry has over a thousand enterprise patents.

I understand the Tizen move. After a phone launches that's the end of Samsung's profitability. Google takes over from there and makes billions off of app purchases made on Samsung's phones.

If anyone in the world could make enough SoCs for a product line launch it is Samsung. They already do it for Apple and themselves and with the partnership with the Global Foundry this could work easily.

Ollie makes some good points, though I question the Tizen move.

Qualcomm is a great company. They are the leading patent holder in advanced 3G technologies, including the ever popular HSPA which fueled the "4G" revolution in the US. They also developed cdmaOne and CDMA2000. While the CDMA technologies failed to gain world wide adoption, they were adopted by both Sprint and Verizon in the US for both carrier's 3G networks. They also purchased Atheros, one of the leading WiFi chipset manufacturers. Combine cellular, WiFi and a killer quad core ARM CPU and you come up with a great piece of hardware. The device is nothing without the wireless technology that is depended upon to make it work.

Tizen!?!? Hmmm....there is no doubt in my mind that Samsung can pull off Tizen. Here is where I worry: apps. With two huge ecosystems that offer millions of apps, Samsung will have a hard time catching up. Microsoft is proving to the rest of the world how hard it can be to run your own app store. Luckily, they also have Windows **cough** 8.1 to help them reach out. Developers have to develop apps for two primary platforms now as it is. No one really likes developing apps for Windows Phone. Now you have to convince app developers to develop for Tizen as well. I see this working in Korea and China. I feel like they are going to have a hard time selling the phone in the US.

Blackberry, as noted, has many patents. They have over 44,000 patents, which is impressive for any company. What most buyers will want to get their hands on are the security patents. In spite of poor sales and out-of-date device releases, BB has one thing going for them. While Apple may have a stronghold on the "sandboxed" devices market, BB paved the way for mobile security. That might be the only reason the company generates any incoming revenue at all.

I think Samsung could benefit immensely from buying Blackberry. I think it might even give them an edge over Apple. Stick with Qualcomm Atheros. If they build their own chip, chances are they are going to use Qualcomm's wireless technology anyway. I see the point, I just don't think it would be worth it. But I don't know the $$ details. Stay away from Tizen. Trash it. Delete it. Stick with Android. No one wants your sub par (IMO, of coarse) apps. Google does well enough with their own.

 

[Jeffrey]

I think Sammy will continue developing and porting Tizen to more and more devices. They announced their 2015 Smart TV's will be running Tizen as well. Their low to middle market products being sold into developing nations will be running Tizen.
Sammy's issue is as Ollie and GF stated. It's incorporating worldwide LTE technology into the Exynos chip set. Exynos has been around for quite sometime and for all we know they may have accomplished just that.