Qualcomm advocates for design-linked incentive scheme for smartphone market, intensifies focus on laptop market

savi soin

US-based chipset company Qualcomm is backing the introduction of design-linked incentive (DLI) scheme for the smartphone industry.

Such a move would benefit Qualcomm significantly, as it has large design centres which develop and design chipsets for smartphones in India.

“Our focus right now is to bring the DLI schemes to phone-making in India. That will be the first step,” Savi Soin, president of Qualcomm India, told Moneycontrol.

The US-based company has been investing in India for the last two decades and said its flagship Snapdragon series chipset and the latest chipset for the $99 5G smartphones were developed and designed in the country.

“Obviously, we would love to get some advantages in terms of the chip design and the scale that we have in India. We are currently focused on bringing mobile production centers and design centers closer together...So we're working with the government in that area,” he added.

The Union government had launched the DLI scheme under the India Semiconductor Mission in December 2021 for the development and deployment of semiconductor design, including Integrated Circuits (ICs), Chipsets, Systems on Chips (SoCs), Systems & IP Cores and semiconductor linked design over five years.

Where does the DLI scheme stand now?

At present, the DLI scheme is limited to startups. Nine companies have been approved for claiming incentives. India is evaluating a proposal to include large multinational companies in its $200 million DLI scheme, provided they are ready to design chips in the country.

In April, the India Cellular and Electronics Association (ICEA) said that the semiconductor DLI scheme needs improvement so that the country can create its intellectual properties (IPs).

It also recommended encouraging larger companies to participate in the semiconductor design ecosystem and focus on the creation of their own IPs.

Qualcomm opened its Chennai Design Center in March this year with an investment of Rs 177.27 crore. The centre will help develop connectivity products for Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 7 and create jobs for up to 1,600 skilled professionals.

Soin had  previously said that the 2024 investment would be spread across Hyderabad, Noida, Chennai, and Bengaluru centres.

Chipset for affordable 5G smartphones

Earlier this week, Qualcomm launched its latest chipset for an affordable 5G smartphone, called Snapdgraon 4s Gen 2, which will enable smartphone makers to launch 5G SA-enabled devices for as low as Rs 8,000.

Xiaomi has come on board to launch the first device based on this latest 5G chipset in India by the end of this year. Soin said Qualcomm is in talks with other brands to develop these affordable smartphones. “The phone availability is based on the OEM schedule. Talks with them are at an advanced stage at the moment.”

An analysis by Techarc, a telecom and consumer technology research firm, suggests that Qualcomm's chipset, launched to lower the cost of 5G smartphones below Rs 8,000, will migrate 156 million feature phone users to 5G by 2030.

The research firm said in a note that, between 2024 and 2030, it estimates 5G widening into the sub-$99 segment to add $13 billion cumulatively in revenues for the smartphone industry.

“Beginning 2025, we expect to see 2-3 percent of smartphone revenues in India to come from 5G smartphones sold in the sub $99 segment. During this period, our analysis suggests there could be an addition of 17-32 million subscribers every year to the 5G smartphone base,” said Faisal Kawoosa, chief analyst at Techarc.

To aggressively tap India’s laptop market

The company also plans to aggressively tap India’s laptop market with the Snapdragon X Elite and Snapdragon X Plus chipsets and Microsoft Copilot+. It has collaborated with major PC OEMs like Asus, Acer, Dell, HP, and Lenovo to launch AI PCs with its Snapdragon X Elite and Snapdragon X Plus processors.

“Our expectation, at least in the first year, will be to spread awareness, so that consumers know Snapdragon is one of the better options in the laptop space. The focus will be to tell them that Snapdragon and AI-PC go hand-in- hand. And that's going to be our first aim. We have the key performance indicators (KPIs) and targets by original equipment makers (OEMs) in place, which are not publicly disclosed, but we do have aspirations to go big,” Soin said.