Report: Qualcomm working on updated Snapdragon 810 chip for Samsung's Galaxy S6
Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) is expected to provide Samsung Electronics with a new version of its Snapdragon 810 chipset in March for the next version of Samsung's flagship Galaxy S smartphone, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
Context & Ripple Effects
This report is the middle beat of a three-day scramble over one design win. On January 21, sources told Bloomberg that Samsung planned to drop the Snapdragon 810 and use its own chip in the next Galaxy flagship (Samsung's plan to drop the 810) — a direct threat to Qualcomm's most valuable socket. Four days later, Qualcomm cut its outlook and confirmed a flagship device had dropped the 810 (the guidance cut warning of a lost flagship), making clear the customer was Samsung. The Wall Street Journal's report of an updated 810 version due in March shows Qualcomm fighting to claw the S6 slot back rather than concede it to Samsung's in-house silicon.
First-order effects
- Qualcomm's flagship revenue is immediately at stake: if the reworked 810 lands in the March Galaxy S6, it reverses the loss flagged in its own outlook cut; if not, Samsung's Exynos takes the entire launch volume.
- Samsung gains negotiating leverage either way — a credible second source means Qualcomm must offer a revised part on Samsung's terms to stay in the phone.
Second-order effects
- The near-loss of the S6 pushes Samsung and Qualcomm toward deeper interdependence instead of divorce: by early 2016 Samsung strikes a deal to manufacture Qualcomm's Snapdragon 820, turning the customer relationship into foundry business (Samsung's deal to produce the 820).
- Other Android flagships reassess the 810 too, and by 2016 phone makers including Samsung are embracing the Snapdragon 820 after avoiding last year's problematic 810 — resetting which chip defines the premium tier (the industry-wide move to the 820).
Third-order effects
- The episode establishes that a single dominant buyer can dictate flagship silicon allocation — a pattern that recurs when Samsung hoards Snapdragon 835 supply for the Galaxy S8, forcing LG and HTC onto older chips (Samsung cornering the 835 supply).
- Flagship smartphone chips consolidate around fewer, larger design wins, where the biggest OEM's sourcing decision can swing a supplier's guidance — raising the cost of losing any single socket and pushing suppliers into foundry deals with their largest customers to lock them in.
The trend: Flagship mobile silicon is consolidating around a handful of sockets whose winners are decided by single large buyers, forcing chipmakers like Qualcomm to trade margin, manufacturing partnerships, and allocation priority to keep them.