Qualcomm on Tuesday announced the Snapdragon 4s Gen 2. The entry-level chip aims to make 5G accessible to 2.8 billion smartphone users in price-sensitive markets, including India and Latin America.
Manufacturers have recently struggled to attract buyers of traditional phones in India, the world’s second-largest smartphone market, largely due to a lack of 5G models in the sub-$100 segment.
According to IDC, the entry-level segment of the Indian smartphone market declined 14% year-over-year to 15%, with 5.1 million smartphone units shipped in the first quarter. China’s Xiaomi and its spin-off brand Poco continue to dominate this segment. Overall, the country’s smartphone market grew 11% year-over-year to 34 million, led by the $200-$400 smartphone segment.
Qualcomm is looking to fill the void left in the entry-level smartphone segment with this new chip. Xiaomi will launch its first device based on the 4s Gen 2 in India later this year, the chipmaker confirmed to TechCrunch.
TechCrunch recently reported that Indian telecom giant Jio is exploring the development of 5G phones as millions of users in the country are not switching to smartphones.
The Snapdragon 4s Gen 2 chip is a feature-limited version of the Snapdragon 4 Gen 2, which was launched in June last year. Based on the 4nm process technology, the new chip features an octa-core Kryo processor, which includes two performance cores supporting a clock speed of up to 2 GHz and six efficiency cores supporting up to 1.8 GHz.
The Snapdragon 4s Gen 2 also doesn’t support 5G networks in the non-standalone 5G deployment mode, which is currently very popular and allows telecom operators to offer high-speed connectivity using their existing network resources. The new chip instead supports connectivity via standalone 5G deployment.
In India, Jio is the only telecom operator to offer 5G networks in standalone mode. However, Airtel, the second largest telecom operator in the country, will launch a version in the future.
Kiranjeet Kaur, associate research director for IDC Asia/Pacific, told TechCrunch that while smartphone vendors in India “have been more aggressive” in offering 5G phones at lower prices, momentum is slower outside the country.
Cost-cutting measures have helped Qualcomm lower the price of its Snapdragon 4s Gen 2 chip, allowing it to launch into future low-end 5G phones in India and other emerging markets.
“There are still some concerns: what is the benefit to this user of migrating to 5G, what is the additional cost of the device/plan, or what are the compromises they have to make in terms of smartphone features to get a cheaper 5G smartphone?” Kaur says. “But I think increased support on the component side will help OEMs and also drive competition in the lower price segment to create some momentum here.”
techcrunch
