Samsung and Qualcomm each connect a whole lot of significance to their longstanding partnership, evidenced by the truth that the top of Samsung’s cell division, TM Roh, made an in-person look on stage in the course of the ongoing Snapdragon Summit 2024, the place Qualcomm unveiled the Snapdragon 8 Elite.
“We love Samsung,” Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon stated as he welcomed Roh on stage. Though Roh’s remarks on the summit did not embrace any product-related bulletins or teasers, his presence spoke volumes in regards to the relationship at an occasion the place Qualcomm has highlighted its partnerships throughout numerous industries as a lot because it has highlighted its new merchandise.
Qualcomm’s co-branding and advertising efforts with its companions have picked up significantly lately to shine the highlight much more on the Snapdragon model, and plenty of of its companions have been glad to share the limelight. Whether or not that is with Microsoft and Copilot+ PCs, Meta giving shoutouts to Qualcomm throughout its occasions, or any variety of system producers that prominently promote their use of Qualcomm’s chipsets.
None of those partnerships are maybe as distinctive because the one Qualcomm has with Samsung. The Korean big is usually each buyer and competitor, as its semiconductor division makes Exynos chipsets that compete immediately for orders from the cell division that buys Snapdragon chipsets from Qualcomm. For instance, this yr’s Galaxy S24 and S24+ use the Exynos 2400 in most markets whereas the Galaxy S24 Extremely makes use of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy globally. Final yr’s Galaxy S23 sequence used the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy globally throughout your entire lineup. However, Samsung’s foldable telephones have solely used Snapdragon chips since day one.
Qualcomm has been facilitating Samsung over the previous two years specifically, offering it with a barely overclocked model of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 and Gen 3 chips, which had been branded as “for Galaxy” variations. Samsung is much from the one flagship Android system maker that buys top-of-the-line chipsets from Qualcomm, just about each different OEM does, however this has allowed a vital differentiating issue to Samsung’s units in a sea of Snapdragon-powered flagships.
Some firms are superb with sharing the highlight and can actively interact in co-branding and advertising campaigns with their companions. Others really feel that lessens their very own model fairness and take a look at to not lean into that an excessive amount of. It is hardly a shock what facet of that line Samsung is on. We obtained an opportunity to select Qualcomm SVP and CMO Don McGuire’s mind on the corporate’s partnership with Samsung throughout Snapdragon Summit 2024, as we had been curious to know whether or not there’s sufficient getting back from that partnership as a lot as Qualcomm is placing into it.
“Generally you must lean in slightly bit earlier than a associate will lean in with you, we have a tendency to try this” McGuire stated, whereas stating that the relationships are completely different by buyer and that Qualcomm has carried out much more collaborating with Samsung on the regional stage. “Our relationship is actually pushed, from a co-market perspective, at a regional stage.”
“All of the Samsung areas have been tremendous collaborative,” McGuire added, stating that they’ve carried out a whole lot of stuff within the US with Samsung’s North America advertising crew, together with co-branded promoting, equivalent to Samsung placing the Snapdragon tag on their TV adverts that they’ve run for the Galaxy S24 sequence and collaborating on market activations within the US.
“I would not say we have not been capable of have profitable co-marketing with Samsung, as we’ve, it is simply been executed in a different way by area, a few of it has gone into tv like within the US, some has been out-of-home and in digital like in Latin America, so it simply relies upon.”
On the flip facet, Qualcomm has introduced Samsung into its present partnerships with the likes of Manchester United. Related collaborative efforts between the 2 firms have occurred in different areas throughout the globe, together with the important thing markets of India and Latin America. Qualcomm additionally contains Samsung in its ecosystem kind of messaging as a model in China, regardless of the absence of any actual cell market share for Samsung within the nation.
Whereas the road between collaboration and competitors could usually blur between Qualcomm and Samsung, it is simple that the partnership between these two firms stays probably the most nuanced and strategically essential. So even because the specifics of their co-branding efforts range by area, the general synergy is a testomony to how two titans of the trade can work collectively in a quickly evolving panorama the place cooperation has grow to be as vital as competitors.
