Qualcomm, free from the looming shadow of its strategic review, has wasted no time in gathering its weapons for a major attack on new markets in 2016. The Consumer Electronics Show saw it unveiling its connected home and car efforts, and this week it has followed up with a Chinese joint venture to boost its nascent efforts in the server market.
This also reflects the rising importance of China in its strategy, not just as a huge and competitive market, but a source of new partnerships such as this new one with Guizhou Province, or its strategic alliance with foundry SMIC. Diversifying its foundries in order to guarantee supply of key components and harness the most advanced processes is critical to any fabless chip vendor, of course, and Qualcomm has also added Samsung to a base which was once the sole preserve of Taiwan’s TSMC.
Intel, too, sees 2016 as a critical year to establish its power in the new markets it has earmarked for growth, and has its own strategic relationships in China to help it achieve that, notably with Rockchip and Spreadtrum for the mobile and embedded sectors. It also talked up its Internet of Things roadmap at CES, and then followed up, this week, with a deeper focus on infrastructure platforms.
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