Chinese original equipment manufacturers Xiaomi, OPPO and Vivo have agreed to purchase electronic parts from Qualcomm worth $12 billion combined through to 2020 as part of three memoranda of understanding inked in China on Thursday. The tech companies signed the MoU during a ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, where United States President Donald Trump and President of the People’s Republic of China Xi Jinping were present alongside the chief executive officers of Xiaomi, OPPO and Vivo.
The press release announcing the signing of the MoU between Qualcomm and each of the three phone makers was limited in details, though it is likely that Xiaomi, OPPO and Vivo will be squeezing the American chipmaker’s processors into their Android mobile device offerings over the course of the next three years, including smartphones that have yet to be announced or still in the development phase. Over the past couple of years, Xiaomi has been using Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processors for its family of Mi smartphones and phablets. To give you some examples, the Xiaomi Mi 6 is fueled by the Snapdragon 835 64-bit octa-core SoC, Qualcomm’s most powerful SoC to date, and the same can be said for the Xiaomi Mi MIX 2, Xiaomi’s current flagship phablet. The company had also utilized a number of Qualcomm’s mid-range chips as well.
Qualcomm’s chips are already found in some OPPO devices, including the OPPO R11 which is equipped with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 660, and the OPPO R11s which is fueled by that very same SoC. It is also no secret that Qualcomm’s Snapdragon hardware is squeezed into a number of Vivo devices, like the Vivo V7 Plus, which is fueled by the Snapdragon 450, Qualcomm’s entry-level chip. It is also possible that the handset could feature the chipmaker’s ultrasonic fingerprint scanners, as Qualcomm and Dongguan, China-based phone maker have been working on the technology for quite some time now. It remains to be seen what future smartphones or phablets will be equipped with Qualcomm processors, though this contract will probably benefit all sides, as Xiaomi, OPPO and Vivo will benefit from Qualcomm’s technology, while Qualcomm will be able to ship out a ton of chips to three huge companies which ship out a ton of devices every year.