Qualcomm buys Wilocity to put gigabit wireless connections in smartphones
Qualcomm confirmed on Wednesday that it is buying gigabit wireless specialist Wilocity in a move that puts the mobile chipmaker firmly behind the new WiGig standard. At some point next year, we will start seeing …
Context & Ripple Effects
Qualcomm enters the deal from a position of defensive need rather than strength: it posted its smallest quarterly revenue increase since 2010 in April, with a smartphone market that is slowing overall and shifting toward China. Buying gigabit wireless specialist Wilocity gives the company a new differentiation axis that does not depend on cellular modem leadership alone.
The move also lands mid-race on short-range speeds. Broadcom put 802.11ac Wi-Fi into smartphones back in July 2012, and Quantenna promised 10-gigabit Wi-Fi for 2015 just months before this deal. By backing the 60GHz WiGig standard through acquisition, Qualcomm skips organic development and plants a flag on the next speed tier.
First-order effects
- Qualcomm gains an in-house path to put gigabit-class WiGig radios into Snapdragon-based smartphones starting next year, adding a spec differentiator at the high end where it competes against chips like the Snapdragon 810 built on ARM's own CPU IP.
- Wilocity, a small specialist, gets folded into the industry's largest mobile chip supplier, converting its standalone WiGig products into components of Qualcomm's integrated SoC and connectivity roadmaps.
Second-order effects
- Rival Wi-Fi silicon vendors — Broadcom most directly, given its early 802.11ac smartphone push — are forced to answer on 60GHz either by developing their own tri-band parts or partnering, turning WiGig support into a checklist item for flagship phones.
- Router and access-point makers gain pressure to add gigabit short-range links so handsets have something to talk to, pulling the PC-peripheral and networking markets toward 60GHz adoption cycles set by phone launch calendars.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, connectivity silicon consolidates further around the big mobile SoC vendors, squeezing out independent wireless specialists who cannot reach handset-scale integration on their own.
- As the smartphone market slows and commoditizes, differentiation migrates from raw cellular throughput to the whole radio stack — cellular plus Wi-Fi plus short-range gigabit links — making acquisitions like this one the standard route for incumbents to buy their way onto each new standard.
The trend: Smartphone silicon vendors are absorbing specialist wireless startups to own every radio in the device, as speed-tier races like 802.11ac, WiGig and beyond replace cellular modems as the battleground for premium differentiation.