Hardware Podcasts

Episode 41: B2B The Story of Qualcomm

The Circuit · 6 Nov 2023 · 32m · Episode 43

What this episode covers

Jay Goldberg traces Qualcomm's evolution from a San Diego-based consulting firm to a dominant wireless infrastructure and chip company, highlighting its unique family-run culture and focus on digital communications over pure compute. He details the strategic pivot from truck tracking to evangelizing CDMA standards, the company's aggressive royalty licensing model, and how its modem technology allowed it to subsume other phone components, forcing competitors like Texas Instruments and Motorola to exit the market. Goldberg also discusses Qualcomm's acquisition strategy, the rise of MediaTek as a low-cost alternative, and the company's current challenges in finding growth beyond the mature mobile market.

Most relevant to

companies scaling up

Topics

Mentioned

Companies
Qualcomm, Linkabit, Texas Instruments, Motorola, MediaTek, Atheros, NXP, Ericsson, Samsung, LG, Panasonic, Sony, Intel, Broadcom, TDK, Epcos, Flarion, Arriver, Cambridge Silicon Radio, Unisoc, Spreadtrum
Products
OmniTrax, Snapdragon
Also
CDMA

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