QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM) made a few announcements this morning before the start of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. According to analysts at Evercore, those announcements show how the chip maker is taking its products beyond just the smartphone.
Qualcomm introduces connected car
At CEO 2014, Qualcomm will be introducing its SnapDragon SD602A infotainment processor, which the company said would be used for connected cars. This is the next-generation automotive chip which haves the Krait apps processor, plus Gobi Connectivity and Adreno graphics processing. QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM) said it would support multiple operating systems, including Android and QNX, which are pre-integrated. This will enable systems operated by these chips to be compatible with the top smartphone and tablet ecosystems.
Currently Qualcomm reports that it has shipped 10 million cumulative automotive units so far. Evercore analysts Mark McKechnie and Zachary Amsel say this isn’t enough to “move the needle” in relation to the more than 1 billion 3G or 4G smartphone units every year. However, they believe it helps average selling prices and could show some steady growth as annual car shipments around the world hit about 80 million.
Qualcomm enters smart TV industry
QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM) also introduced the SnapDragon SD802 for smart televisions, set top boxes and digital media adapters. It has a 1.8 GHz Krait CPU, Adreno 330 GPU, Hexagon DSP, and 82.11 WiFi. In addition, it supports multiple operating systems, including KitKat, the newest version of Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s Android operating system.
Samples of these chips will be seen in the first half of this year, while shipments will begin in the second half. The Evercore team believes that the smart TV opportunity for Qualcom is mostly chip-related with limited royalties because there’s no 3G or 4G in TVs or set-top boxes yet. There are approximately 230 million TVs shipped around the globe each year. About 20% of them in the U.S. are considered to be smart or otherwise connected to the Internet.
Qualcomm targets home gateways
QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM) also has an Internet Processor which targets home gateways. Such systems are designed to create seamless integration for smartphones and home devices. They could be used for home security, energy management health monitoring and other things. At CES 2014, Qualcomm is showing off three different demos, showing how Qustodio enables parental monitoring and controls, how Akamai optimizes video and software delivery and how Pogoplug offers cloud storage.
Evercore analysts believe that if Qualcomm’s chips are connected to wired broadband like cable or fiber, the opportunity could be mostly chip-related. However, they see the big opportunities for Qualcomm in this area as being through 3G or 4G connections to smart televisions because this would add royalties to the company’s income.
The analysts continue to rate QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM) as Overweight with an $80 per share price target.
