Author: Mr.Yu

On May 20, 2022, Qualcomm held the “2022 Snapdragon Night” event. In response to Beijing’s epidemic prevention policy, Qualcomm moved this event online, which is one of the largest marketing activities in the country.

Last year, when reporting on the Qualcomm Technology and Cooperation Summit, I described Qualcomm as showing off their circle of friends at a big party, showing off their muscles and QR codes to the industry: Hey, friend, add me?

Affected by the epidemic, it was not possible to set up an exhibition, so the one-hour online event on Friday night was particularly valuable. Hou Mingjuan, Vice President of Qualcomm, stood in the virtual background of the studio and hosted the event.

Qualcomm President and CEO Cristiano Amon appeared in the video and shared Qualcomm’s new developments in various fields to online attendees:

• The number of global users of Qualcomm Snapdragon terminals has exceeded 2 billion. In China, about 80% of smartphone users know about Snapdragon.

• In the automotive field, more than 150 million cars have been equipped with Qualcomm’s automotive intelligent networking platform. Recently, Snapdragon has also become a high-level partner of the Ferrari Formula One team.

• More than 50 XR terminals equipped with Snapdragon have been launched, and Snapdragon is making efforts in the metaverse field.

The most important news in the first half is the release of the new processors, namely the new generation flagship processor Snapdragon 8+ and the new high-end processor Snapdragon 7. As the core force of Qualcomm Snapdragon mobile platform in the future, in addition to a large number of eye-catching feature support, it emphasizes the improvement of performance and power consumption performance.

It is not surprising that the performance of Snapdragon 888 and Snapdragon 8 in terms of efficiency has been criticized on the Chinese Internet for a long time. Wang Xiang, President of Xiaomi Group, emphasized in his speech that Snapdragon 8+ “is not a semi-generation upgrade like Snapdragon 888+, but a real experience revolution.”

Along with the release of Snapdragon 8+, Qualcomm emphasized that on the basis of significant improvements in both CPU and GPU performance, both have achieved a 30% reduction in power consumption, and the overall power consumption of the SoC has been reduced by about 15%. If everything can be realized, whether it is for regular users or heavy game players, this year’s domestic Android phone models equipped with the new generation of Snapdragon processors in the second half of the year will become more promising.If it weren’t for the strong performance of the Snapdragon 870 model in hand, I would almost want to follow a wave too.

Qualcomm has also continued its usual style of making a fortune in the automotive industry in silence.

This time at the Snapdragon Night event, although there were no new products and technologies related to automobiles, from the length, duration, and endorsement by cooperative partners such as XPeng and Maoguo Zhihang, Qualcomm’s latest progress in the automotive field still became the other major heavyweight that is on par with the mobile terminal.

• In 2021, the manufacturing process of the Snapdragon cockpit chip was the same as that of the flagship mobile phone for the first time.

• Up to now, more than 150 million vehicles worldwide have been equipped with Snapdragon digital chassis solutions, and the total value of orders is estimated to have exceeded $16 billion.

• Major automakers around the world have reached cooperation with Qualcomm on the cabin platform. This has made Qualcomm rise to the top of the world in the field of in-vehicle network connection, automotive connection, and new generation information and entertainment systems.

• In the past two years, Qualcomm and Chinese automakers have jointly launched about 30 models using Snapdragon cockpit platforms.

• 2022 will become the first year that Snapdragon intelligent driving technology will be installed in the car. Maoguo Zhihang has developed the “Little Magic Box 3.0” auxiliary driving solution based on its Snapdragon Ride chip. On this basis, Maoguo Zhihang has launched Maoguo City NOH specifically for urban scenarios. According to the plan, mass-produced models will be launched in 2022.

In our opinion, rather than saying that the 5nm manufacturing process of the Snapdragon cockpit chip has caught up with flagship smartphones, it is better to say that after years of efforts, Qualcomm has finally established a perception in the field of smart cars, a perception that is similar to that of the smartphone market.

A perception that the industry, top and bottom, and consumer groups have the ability to interpret, and can establish a strong association between chips and product power.

In terms of communication, Qualcomm, which has always been low-key and practical, has the loudest voice through industry partners’ word-of-mouth and consumer awareness. It must be said that it is another unique and brilliant approach.

In a broader sense, the cooperation mode between automakers and Qualcomm can be understood according to the cooperation mode with smartphone manufacturers–Qualcomm provides the core hardware and technical platform, and packages various features. Enterprises can customize their development according to brand tone, product positioning, and market plan to meet various segmented consumer needs.It’s no wonder why XPeng Motors’ CEO, He XPeng, described their relationship with Qualcomm as “Snapdragon is our old friend”. XPeng’s G3, P7, P5, and even the upcoming G9 are all based on the Snapdragon digital platform. He XPeng revealed that as of the first quarter, XPeng Motors, which is using the Snapdragon digital platform, has sold more than 150,000 units.

So, what is the Snapdragon digital platform?

According to public information, the Snapdragon digital platform is composed of a set of open and scalable cloud-connected platforms, using a unified architecture to bring higher security and immersive digital experiences, and supporting feature upgrades for next-generation cars throughout their entire life cycle.

Automakers can choose to adopt any or all of the platforms covered by the Snapdragon digital platform in their product lines and provide highly customized experiences for their products through continuous upgrades in the cloud.

The Snapdragon digital platform consists of four parts: Snapdragon Ride, Snapdragon Cockpit Platform, Snapdragon Automotive Intelligence Platform, and Snapdragon Car-to-Cloud Service.

Snapdragon Ride is an open and programmable platform that can meet the comprehensive needs from new car assessment program (NCAP) to L2+/L3-level driving assistance and autonomous driving; it provides a scalable combination of SoCs and accelerators for visual, central computing, and high-performance autonomous driving needs; based on Arriver’s one-stop visual software stack, it supports automakers and tier-one suppliers to use Arriver driving strategy solution to develop their driving strategies, parking or driver monitoring software stack, and advanced navigation features. Snapdragon Ride also provides comprehensive support for advanced features, functional safety / expected functional safety (SOTIF), and system architecture capabilities.

Snapdragon Cockpit Platform helps automakers create multi-screen, multi-camera, top-class audio, video, and multimedia experiences, as well as a hybrid key environment that can simultaneously meet the needs of consumers and the safety ecosystem, through highly customizable and always-connected SoC and virtualization software solutions.With the Snapdragon Automotive Connectivity Platform, automakers can create LTE and 5G network services, cellular vehicle-to-everything (C-V2X), Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and precise positioning capabilities, fully supporting safe connections between cars and the cloud, other vehicles, and the surrounding environment to meet the growing demand for safer and more immersive driving and riding experiences.

Snapdragon Car to Cloud Services is a pre-integrated software and service platform designed with a new revenue model that offers automakers flexible feature sets to upgrade performance and introduce new capabilities.

In short, the service areas of Snapdragon Digital Chassis cover autonomous driving, intelligent cockpit, connectivity, and cloud services.

As always connected, OTA delivers a steady stream of new features and services to users, achieving highly customized and evergreen experiences.

To borrow from the game industry, selling games to players is just the beginning. It depends more on the follow-up skills of the developers and publishers, such as adding exciting new content, fixing bugs, revitalizing old players through operations, attracting new players, and finding ways to grow and strengthen the IP and brand.

In conclusion

“In the past 18 months, domestic automakers have launched over 20 models featuring Qualcomm automotive solutions. As of now, the estimated total value of orders for Qualcomm automotive solutions has exceeded USD 9 billion, including in-vehicle connectivity, in-vehicle entertainment, and in-vehicle connected services.” This is the data we quoted in the report on Qualcomm’s cooperation and technology summit in 2021.

In the blink of an eye, Qualcomm has pushed this number over USD 16 billion. As of April 2022, Qualcomm’s automotive business orders increased by more than USD 3 billion compared to the previous quarter.

Visible to the naked eye, the accumulation of technology in the mobile phone field over the years is now conquering the automotive field at an extremely fast speed through Qualcomm’s own familiar partnership model.

As a side note, rather than marveling at the growth of numbers in various fields, it is the last few lines of text in the video of Ingenuity, the Mars helicopter, in cooperation with NASA that is most impressive:

• Ingenuity is still operating on Mars, exploring the unknown never stops.

This article is a translation by ChatGPT of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.