In the mobile chip market, none are perhaps more well-known than Qualcomm, a company who has chips in tons of different devices. Qualcomm is not the dominating giant it once was however, after increased competition from the likes of Samsung using their own in-house chips as well as Chinese vendors like MediaTek and others who are rapidly expanding. In light of increased competition Qualcomm has seen a decline in profits, and now it’s being reported that they may be on track to let go of thousands of employees alongside this week’s earnings call which takes place Wednesday, a move which would no doubt be made in an attempt to cut costs and help swing profits back upward.
Although it isn’t known exactly how many employees would be let go from the company, it’s rumored to be somewhere around 4,000 employees total. This is also not even a year later from Qualcomm’s last employee cut, which happened around December of 2014 when Qualcomm let go of some 600 employees down from 31,300 at the time. Cutting costs and saving profits is not Qualcomm’s only concern though. Just last week it was stated that the EU may be looking to investigate Qualcomm over monopolistic practices and how it does business which surely isn’t helping their brand image.
Qualcomm also hasn’t had an easy go of it this year with the negative media attention it’s received over the Snapdragon 810 and it’s proposed issues of overheating in devices which it powers. Samsung which has typically used Qualcomm chips in the past in their flagship offerings, opted for their own Exynos 7420 CPU instead of the Snapdragon 810 in their most recent flagship set, the Galaxy S6 and the Galaxy S6 Edge which left Qualcomm without a major OEM to supply to for one of the biggest phone drops of the year. While Qualcomm certainly isn’t going anywhere, it’s difficult for them to compete with other brands which are stemming from emerging markets where many of the consumers aren’t able to purchase high-end smartphones. This is part of what’s made it possible for other companies to step in and offer something at a more competitive and affordable cost.