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Qualcomm ends its satellite communication partnership
Chipmaker Qualcomm and satellite services provider Iridium announced the end of their partnership on Thursday, which also wraps up Qualcomm’s satellite communication smartphone ambitions for the global market.
Following this announcement, Iridium’s stock fell over 8% in after-hours trading from its close at $37.14. The company said in its press release that both Qualcomm and Iridium successfully developed the technology required to enable satellite SMS services in smartphone devices.
However, it also said that companies are not keen on using this satellite SMS in their new smartphones, which led to the termination of this partnership.
Qualcomm officially announced this new “Snapdragon Satellite, a satellite-based two-way SMS solution for flagship smartphones at CES 2023. The tech was adapted for the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 platform, but no smartphone maker launched phones with this capability since its announcement.
Meanwhile, Huawei and Apple are the only phone makers that won the satellite phone race back in 2022. Huawei introduced the Mate 50 Pro featuring the first-ever satellite messaging feature. This feature received upgrades with Huawei P60 Pro with two-way communication.
Recently, Huawei unveiled the Mate 60 Pro with the world’s first satellite calling feature in a smartphone. This also garnered a huge attraction in the Chinese market and praise for such innovation.
There are reports that Huawei’s competitors are also working on satellite SMS features and may launch new phones featuring this technology.
