Source: Jerry Hildenbrand / Android Central
The tech world on the Android side is dangerously close to free-fall mode. Many companies are losing money, others are close but still breaking even, and it’s only predicted to get even worse. But during the last quarter, there was one company that seemingly fiddled while it watched the industry burn even though it was partially responsible for the fire: Qualcomm.
Qualcomm shipped 21% fewer smartphone platform chips (that means the processor, GPU, coprocessors for things like the camera or AI) yet made 5% more profit. How the hell do you pull that off, you might be asking? The answer is that you overcharge for your product and make sure people will buy it anyway.
More: The Snapdragon 865 is driving up flagship prices during a renaissance of affordable phones
Qualcomm is the ultimate grandmaster of this game. Think about it — would you walk into the Verizon store and buy a flagship Android phone that didn’t have the newest Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 series chip inside it? Of course not. When you’re paying so much for a thing you expect it to be the best of things.
Qualcomm knows this but more importantly so does Samsung and LG and OnePlus and every other company that makes the “best” Android flagship phones