Arm goes to war against Qualcomm: Stupid Squared

Given Intel’s relative weakness at the moment, Arm has a chance to move beyond its smartphone base and firmly into PCs. Instead of supporting Qualcomm’s game, Arm decided to revoke Qualcomm’s license. This move not only appears to be an abuse of power but is highly unfortunate, as Intel and AMD have correctly identified the threat and formed a partnership to combat it.

This suggests that perhaps Qualcomm should not have blocked Nvidia’s attempt to buy Arm because, to get government approval for the deal, Nvidia would have to protect Qualcomm’s interests and block Arm from doing what it is now doing with Qualcomm.

Also, Arm is also at risk for smartphones as the most popular smartphone in the market currently belongs to Huawei. It doesn’t use an Arm processor but a Kirin processor, which, on paper, might be better. My product of the week is a Huawei phone that has drawn interest on par with the original iPhone. So, this Arm vs. Qualcomm battle is premature.

Qualcomm’s PC efforts are struggling

With a lot of focus coming from Qualcomm to Huawei on the performance of the new Snapdragon processor for laptops, the big issue for them is not performance but compatibility. This compatibility issue, while not pronounced for those of us who don’t use many custom apps, has become a bridge for large companies with many custom Windows apps.

Also, over the past few months, AMD and Intel have stepped up their laptop processor game. While Qualcomm can still successfully argue that it’s better in terms of efficiency, the need for emulators detracts from this and x86 is the entry technology. This means that all Intel and AMD need to be is good enough, but Qualcomm needs to surpass them.

A serious mistake was failing to run more 5G capabilities on these Snapdragon notebooks. Qualcomm’s biggest advantage is its wireless capabilities and powering a laptop that not only has all-day battery life, but also instant and comprehensive connectivity. However, only Microsoft Surface tablets have this capability.

Coincidentally, I understand that Surface Snapdragon AI PC products are significantly outselling everyone else, suggesting that 5G capability was a significant potential game changer.

A significant reason the line has struggled is that it is both undifferentiated and not well marketed. When a product is differentiated, its marketing needs are greater because we do not prefer differentiation unless that differentiation has a core benefit.

For example, the LG Prada phone (on which the first iPhone was based) didn’t sell well because people didn’t like virtual keyboards and fancy phones like BlackBerry. But Apple marketed the consumer convenience of a screen phone and concentrated the market on it, knocking Palm, Research in Motion (BlackBerry) and even Microsoft out of the market.

That’s well-funded and fully effective marketing power, and we didn’t see it with these offerings.

x86 Ecosystem Advisory Group

Intel and AMD recently formed x86 Ecosystem Advisory Group To defend against ARM and any other challenging technology. This group includes nearly every major PC OEM, as well as several server and web suppliers, including Google, Meta, and Microsoft.

It’s a “hell froze over” relationship, as AMD and Intel have been at each other’s throats for years. But these two competitors rightly saw the risk, put their differences aside and collectively moved forward against the Arm threat.

While the group is still too young to make much headway, it provides significant resources aimed not only at preventing Arm from entering the larger computing ecosystem but also at the prospect of challenging Arm for future tablet and potential smartphone alternatives.

Arm should have moved immediately to integrate its licensees into a similar group, much like partnerships formed during wartime where countries put aside their differences to deal with a broader threat. Instead, Arm decided to go to war with Qualcomm. It would be like Russia in World War II when Germany decided to bomb the UK when it invaded. The outcome of that battle would probably have been very different.

The threat of Huawei

At the moment, Huawei is in limbo because of its alleged close ties to the Chinese government. Nevertheless, its products have had significant price and performance advantages for some time that seem to be growing.

As China’s electric car companies begin to overtake Tesla, Chinese companies appear to be moving much faster than their Western counterparts. If relations between West and East ease again, Western tech companies like Arm, Qualcomm and Tesla will be at even greater risk.

This situation threatens Arm’s and Qualcomm’s current core markets, making this conflict between the two companies not only untimely but incredibly stupid as it clouds the future of both companies.

wrap up

Arm has significant potential to redefine the personal computing space, but so do challengers like x86 and Huawei. This is not the time to launch an aggressive attack on licensees; It’s time for AMD and the Intel Advisory Group to gather to address their efforts.

The fight between Arm and Qualcomm is likely to create the same dynamic that resulted in the iPhone taking on Nokia, BlackBerry and Palm, among others, and destroying the otherwise bright future of both companies.

Let’s hope the adults finally step in because if this fight escalates, it won’t end well for either firm.

Huawei Tri-Fold Mate XT Smartphone

Huawei Tri-Fold Mate XT might be the most amazing smartphone ever launched.

Thanks to Chinese and Huawei bans and restrictions, this phone is only available in China for now, but it worries Samsung and once again shows how far behind Apple is.

This phone expands from a good-sized 6.4-inch screen to a 10.2-inch tablet, making it an iPhone and an iPad in one device. Its cameras are as good or better than any premium phone on the market, and when folded, it’s about the same thickness as a single-screen phone.

It only has two hinges, so “tri” refers to the number of screens, not the number of hinges. The phone can be used as a single screen, a double screen with an additional screen at the back, or three screens as needed. The UI, which is based on Huawei’s Harmony OS (not Android), handles all three configurations with ease.

One drawback is the battery size. It has a small, smartphone-sized battery, not a tablet-sized one, giving it relatively short battery life in tablet mode. Another drawback is the price, around $3,000, making it one of the most expensive phones out there.

It’s not waterproof, and the screens are relatively fragile. Screen protectors generally don’t work well on foldable phones. You can buy it on eBay on the gray market, but with prices often pushing $10,000 and little adjustment outside of China, even I wouldn’t buy it that way. But the huge price premium suggests that enough people want this phone to justify the hefty price tag.

Flaws aside, this thing draws crowds because there’s nothing like it. Also, it could show how Qualcomm, assuming it survives the Arm craze, could move more aggressively into the PC market by building a different class of PC, much like the iPhone was initially a different class of smartphone, similar to what Huawei is doing. Trifold. Embrace the difference and push it with a unique attractive design.

Qualcomm is the only processor company that can effectively compete with the Kirin processor in this phone. If the Arm community hadn’t stepped up to this threat, they might have wished they had studied more closely what Apple did with Nokia. In the end, even though I can’t use it, I still have lust in my heart for the Huawei Mate XT tri-fold smartphone and it’s my product of the week.