Qualcomm<\/b> is ending its direct-to-device relationship with Iridium<\/b> because smartphone manufacturers are not adopting the satellite-compatible chips. Analysts say the price and the lack of technology standards were contributing factors. <\/p>\n
The partnership, unveiled at CES in January, was seen as the Android answer to Apple\u2019s emergency messaging via satellite, with the potential to connect IoT devices and vehicles in the future. <\/p>\n
Qualcomm demonstrated that the Snapdragon Satellite platform is capable of messaging on Iridum\u2019s L-band network. The chipset was offered as an option in the flagship Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Mobile Platform, which is used on Samsung, Motorola, OnePlus, and other phones. <\/p>\n
But adoption didn\u2019t take off. A number of OEMs signed on, but those activations were pushed to 2024. Samsung skipped out on the satellite connectivity in its Galaxy S23. There are reports that the Samsung Galaxy S24 will include satellite connectivity \u2014 but with this news, it looks like Iridium won\u2019t be the satellite provider. <\/p>\n
Qualcomm is terminating the agreement effective Dec. 3. Iridium\u2019s stock dropped 5.5% on Friday after the announcement on Nov. 9. <\/p>\n
Iridium said it will be pursuing new relationships with device OEMs, chipmakers, and developers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile I\u2019m disappointed that this partnership didn\u2019t bear immediate fruit, we believe the direction of the industry is clear toward increased satellite connectivity in consumer devices,\u201d Iridium CEO Matt Desch said in a statement. \u201cLed by Apple today, MNOs and device manufacturers still plan, over time, to provide their customers with expanded coverage and new satellite-based features, and our global coverage and regulatory certainty make us well suited to be a key player in this emerging market.\u201d<\/p>\n
Iridium had a service provider agreement with Qualcomm and would have received royalties for devices sold and network usage fees. But with the uncertain adoption timeline, Iridium did not factor Qualcomm service revenue into its official guidance. Therefore, the cancellation doesn\u2019t affect Iridium\u2019s guidance for this year, or the company\u2019s projection to hit $1 billion in annual service revenue by 2030. <\/p>\n
Iridium also hinted at the opportunity for a future narrowband non-terrestrial network (NTN) service. At an investor day in September, Desch said the operator is in the \u201cvery early stages\u201d of looking at a narrowband IoT investment for use cases like agriculture and asset tracking. He said it would be a low average revenue per user IoT service with high latency for low-cost devices \u2014 different from the company\u2019s \u201cpremium IoT.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cCompanies electing to adopt an Iridium solution today will have long-term service certainty and can be involved in Iridium\u2019s narrowband non-terrestrial-network service development planning,\u201d the company said Thursday. <\/p>\n
The writing was on the wall for months that something was off with the Qualcomm deal, William Blair analyst Louie DiPalma said in a research note on Friday. DiPalma said both price and technology were contributing factors. <\/p>\n
\u201cQualcomm conveyed to us that even though the Iridium service was functional and available for smartphone manufacturers to incorporate in their phones, the smartphone manufacturers did not have a \u2018line of sight on the monetization models,\u2019\u201d DiPalma wrote. \u201cThis implies that smartphone manufacturers were concerned about the economics and were objecting to the price Qualcomm was charging.\u201d <\/p>\n
Peter Kibutu, advanced technology lead for NTNs at tech consultancy firm TTP, argued the Qualcomm chip wasn\u2019t adopted because it relied on Iridium\u2019s proprietary technology versus standards-based tech.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe use of proprietary solutions constrains the connectivity to individual satellite networks and doesn\u2019t take advantage of the vibrant standards-based ecosystem,\u201d Kibutu said in a statement to Via Satellite<\/i>. \u201cThe long-term solution, and one that Qualcomm says it expects to continue exploring with Iridium, will be based on 3GPP NTN standards and will leverage existing industry ecosystems. This openness is what will enable the mass adoption of direct-to-device NTN services.\u201d <\/p>\n
There is debate within the satellite industry about how big the direct-to-device opportunity is, and the best way to address the market. Apple\u2019s partnership with Globalstar \u2014 and Qualcomm\u2019s partnership with Iridium \u2014 requires smartphone hardware that is compatible with existing satellites using licensed mobile satellite services (MSS) spectrum. <\/p>\n
SpaceX, AST SpaceMobile, and Lynk Global, are taking a different approach \u2014 designing satellites to communicate with unmodified cell phones, using terrestrial spectrum through partnerships with mobile network operators.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Qualcomm is ending its direct-to-device relationship with Iridium because smartphone manufacturers are not adopting the satellite-compatible chips. Analysts say the price and the lack of technology standards were contributing factors. The partnership, unveiled at CES in January, was seen as the Android answer to Apple\u2019s emergency messaging via satellite, with the potential to connect IoT […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":52388,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52387"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52387\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}