When the chips are down: US semiconductor maker Qualcomm aims to dominate consumer drone market as revenue plummets
Company says global demand for consumer drones will match that for action cameras and DSLR cameras combined
US chip giant Qualcomm believes the global market for consumer drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles, will ultimately become as big as the combined market for DSLR digital cameras and so-called “action” cameras like those made by GoPro as “flying cameras” become all the rage.
The company has been beset by falling profits of late and may view this market as a way to get back on track. Its total revenue declined over 17 per cent in 2015 while its stock price fell 30 per cent, according research firm Gartner.
But its prospects in China could improve this year as it gambles on drones and also the fruit of a deal signed with the local government of Guizhou province on Sunday to form a of 1.85 billion (US$280 million) joint venture to make high-performance processors for servers.
Qualcomm hopes to lead the race to become the future nerve centre for drones by supplying them with semiconductors. the company is a major supplier of processors for smartphones, which some drones use as remote controls.
“The consumer drone market can be as big as the [two markets] combined,” Hugo Swart, a senior director at Qualcomm Atheros, a subsidiary of Qualcomm that focusses on wireless technologies, told the South China Morning Post late last week.