Latest news with #Katouzian
Time of India
22-07-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Qualcomm aims to diversify revenue base amid muted global smartphone growth
New Delhi: Chipmaker Qualcomm is actively pursuing a strategy of revenue diversification, aiming to shift away from catering predominantly to the smartphone industry into new categories, as global smartphone shipment growth remains muted, a top senior executive told ET. Currently, around 70% of Qualcomm's revenues come from the mobile segment. The company aims to reduce this to 50% by 2029, said Alex Katouzian, Group General Manager, Mobile, Compute, & XR (MCX), Qualcomm. He added that the diversification is on track, with several emerging areas performing well and contributing increasingly to the topline. 'The PC segment is on track with the primary focus being on brand pushing and channel penetration. The XR (Mixed Reality) segment is doing really well with a growing customer base that now includes Android XR and AOSP Android, not just Meta. Qualcomm's chips are designed into practically every solution that's out there in the XR space,' Katouzian said. The executive said the wearables and hearables business for the company is expected to double in the next 3-4 years, while automotive and IoT are doing well. The shift in strategy comes with the global smartphone market reaching maturity and experiencing slower growth and periodic contraction, experts said. This makes it increasingly challenging for Qualcomm to sustain strong revenue growth solely from the mobile segment. 'The shift is not about consumers giving up smartphones, as the smartphone is "very difficult to replace" and ambient computing is seen as a "subtle supplement" to it. Instead, the strategy is to move from an "app centric and smartphone at the center" model to "the human at the center with agents becoming the user experience and the user interface," the executive said. Qualcomm's diversification also comes amidst its rivals strengthening their position in the market. The company is facing increasing challenges from Taiwan-based MediaTek, which now commands a larger volume market share than Qualcomm in India and other markets. According to Counterpoint Research, MediaTek secured a 38% market share globally in the smartphone SoC (System-on-Chip) shipments in Q1 2025, while Qualcomm trailed at 28%. That said, Qualcomm's revenues from the mobile segment remains much higher than MediaTek's after its focus on increasing its presence in the premium end of the market. Katouzian asserted that volume is not the key to the company's growth, but rather the share of the wallet. 'While MediaTek might ship more smartphone chipsets by volumes, Qualcomm is far ahead by value because Qualcomm's share of the premium tier is so high in the smartphone market, yielding a much higher value, and triple quadruple the margin compared to what MediaTek can achieve across value-tier phones,' he said.
Time of India
22-07-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Qualcomm aims to diversify revenue base amid muted smartphone growth: Exec
Qualcomm is strategically diversifying its revenue streams to reduce reliance on the smartphone market, aiming for a 50% contribution by 2029. This shift includes focusing on PC, XR, wearables, automotive, and IoT sectors, driven by maturing smartphone growth and competition from rivals like MediaTek. Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Chipmaker Qualcomm is actively pursuing a strategy of revenue diversification, aiming to shift away from catering predominantly to the smartphone industry into new categories, as global smartphone shipment growth remains muted, a senior executive told around 70% of Qualcomm's revenues come from the mobile segment. The company aims to reduce this to 50% by 2029, said Alex Katouzian , Group General Manager, Mobile, Compute & XR (MCX), added that the diversification is on track, with several emerging areas performing well and contributing increasingly to the topline.'The PC segment is on track, with the primary focus being on brand pushing and channel penetration. The XR (Mixed Reality) segment is doing really well, with a growing customer base that now includes Android XR and AOSP Android, not just Meta. Qualcomm's chips are designed into practically every solution that's out there in the XR space,' Katouzian executive said the wearables and hearables business for the company is expected to double in the next 3–4 years, while automotive and IoT are doing shift in strategy comes with the global smartphone market reaching maturity and experiencing slower growth and periodic contraction, experts said. This makes it increasingly challenging for Qualcomm to sustain strong revenue growth solely from the mobile segment.'The shift is not about consumers giving up smartphones, as the smartphone is very difficult to replace and ambient computing is seen as a subtle supplement to it. Instead, the strategy is to move from an app-centric and smartphone-at-the-center model to the human at the center, with agents becoming the user experience and the user interface,' the executive diversification also comes amid its rivals strengthening their position in the market. The company is facing increasing challenges from Taiwan-based MediaTek, which now commands a larger volume market share than Qualcomm in India and other to Counterpoint Research, MediaTek secured a 38% market share globally in smartphone SoC (System-on-Chip) shipments in Q1 2025, while Qualcomm trailed at 28%. That said, Qualcomm's revenues from the mobile segment remain much higher than MediaTek's after its focus on increasing its presence in the premium end of the asserted that volume is not the key to the company's growth, but rather the share of the wallet.'While MediaTek might ship more smartphone chipsets by volume, Qualcomm is far ahead by value because Qualcomm's share of the premium tier is so high in the smartphone market, yielding a much higher value and triple or quadruple the margin compared to what MediaTek can achieve across value-tier phones,' he said.
Time of India
22-07-2025
- Business
- Time of India
India-based LLMs perfect to push local AI use, smart glass experience: Qualcomm's Alex Katouzian
India-based large language models (LLMs) will be perfect to push AI use cases in the country and even enhance the experience of extended reality like smart glasses as they are expected to be better trained to understand local languages, dialect, etc, a senior global official of chipset firm Qualcomm said on Monday. Speaking on the sidelines of " Snapdragon for India -- XR Day", Qualcomm Technologies Group General Manager for Mobile, Compute and XR (MCX), Alex Katouzian said original AI didn't understand the dialect properly. "I think it's key that either an OEM (original equipment maker) or a distribution company teams up with a model manufacturer or model developer to make that a reality or they develop their own model. " India-based LLMs are perfect. Local models understand the use cases of local people. They understand the dialects, they understand where they go and what they want to do. It's much more amenable, in my opinion, than just a generic model coming through," he said. Katouzian said India is a massive market for smart glasses, including sunglasses. He said traditional glasses can be replicated by smart glasses that can allow them to actually talk and experience AI capability, AI assistants, and agents all day long. The more AI use cases become available in localised languages, the better it is going to be, he said. "We think it's going to be a big, big market." He said smart glasses are going to be the next computing devices after mobile phones. "PCs allow you to create documents and create presentations and do a lot of creative types of apps and environments. Next came the phone. The phone complemented what you did on the PC, but the PC is running in tens of watts. The next computing device will be the glasses or the headset. In many cases, and especially for AR (augmented reality), it's running in sub-one watt power," Katouzian said. He said sophistication and understanding of new technology in the Indian market is going up very high. "My understanding is there's over 350 million Gen Z customers in India, all of who are looking for not just regular tech, but lifestyle tech, something that can embed into their life. Glasses are a perfect fit for that because if you have a pair of glasses that can give you access to more information, either connected to your phone or connected to your watch, then it becomes kind of a lifestyle situation," Katouzian said. He said Qualcomm is working with Indian companies like Jio, Flipkart, QWR, Lenskart, etc, for the development of smart glasses and push for adoption of local AI models and use case to enhance their experience in the country.
Time of India
21-07-2025
- Business
- Time of India
India-based LLMs perfect to push local AI use, smart glass experience: Qualcomm official
Academy Empower your mind, elevate your skills India-based large language models (LLMs) will be perfect to push AI use cases in the country and even enhance the experience of extended reality like smart glasses as they are expected to be better trained to understand local languages, dialect, etc, a senior global official of chipset firm Qualcomm said on on the sidelines of " Snapdragon for India -- XR Day", Qualcomm Technologies Group General Manager for Mobile, Compute and XR (MCX), Alex Katouzian said original AI didn't understand the dialect properly."I think it's key that either an OEM (original equipment maker) or a distribution company teams up with a model manufacturer or model developer to make that a reality or they develop their own model. India-based LLMs are perfect. Local models understand the use cases of local people. They understand the dialects, they understand where they go and what they want to do. It's much more amenable, in my opinion, than just a generic model coming through," he said India is a massive market for smart glasses, including said traditional glasses can be replicated by smart glasses that can allow them to actually talk and experience AI capability, AI assistants, and agents all day more AI use cases become available in localised languages, the better it is going to be, he said. "We think it's going to be a big, big market."He said smart glasses are going to be the next computing devices after mobile phones."PCs allow you to create documents and create presentations and do a lot of creative types of apps and environments. Next came the phone. The phone complemented what you did on the PC, but the PC is running in tens of watts. The next computing device will be the glasses or the headset. In many cases, and especially for AR (augmented reality), it's running in sub-one watt power," Katouzian said sophistication and understanding of new technology in the Indian market is going up very high."My understanding is there's over 350 million Gen Z customers in India, all of who are looking for not just regular tech, but lifestyle tech, something that can embed into their life. Glasses are a perfect fit for that because if you have a pair of glasses that can give you access to more information, either connected to your phone or connected to your watch, then it becomes kind of a lifestyle situation," Katouzian said Qualcomm is working with Indian companies like Jio, Flipkart, QWR, Lenskart, etc, for the development of smart glasses and push for adoption of local AI models and use case to enhance their experience in the country.
Indian Express
21-07-2025
- Business
- Indian Express
Why Qualcomm is betting on smart glasses like Meta's Ray-Bans as the next big thing in tech
Alex Katouzian, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Mobile Compute & XR at Qualcomm Inc, Monday expressed confidence that smart glasses will become the next big category in the consumer tech space. 'As of today, many people are carrying not one device but multiple devices like watches, phones, and earbuds. Glasses will be another smart device that people carry,' said Katouzian. Katouzian's confidence in the smart glasses segment comes after the surprise success of Meta's glasses developed in partnership with Ray-Ban. Although Meta has explored both virtual and augmented reality, it was the Ray-Ban smart glasses that caught consumers' attention globally, despite not being advanced AR glasses. Instead, the Ray-Bans combine the Meta AI voice assistant with basic hardware and a classic design, which helped the company sell millions of units. Ray-Bans are wirelessly linked with a smartphone. 'You have seen Meta Ray-Bans and Oakleys; they exist today at a scale much larger than last year or the year before. The volumes have increased six to seven times compared to what we shipped previously,' Katouzian told at the Snapdragon for India event in Delhi. The reason Qualcomm, the leading maker of smartphone processors, is making a bigger push into smart glasses is probably because it developed the processor that powered the Meta Ray-Ban glasses. Now, that experiment seems to have paid off, and the company is launching a new chip specifically designed for the next generation of smart glasses. The AR1 Plus Gen 1 chip is an upgrade from the processors used in smaller smart glasses, such as the Meta Ray-Bans. The new chip is not only smaller in size, allowing for a larger battery while keeping the glasses looking like regular eyewear, but also supports on-device AI, capable of running small language models. This enables the glasses to handle more offline tasks using voice commands. 'Not only are we moving toward making glasses smarter, but we are also working to combine these devices to deliver a much better user experience. Whether it's on-device or in the cloud, it doesn't matter to us. We are agnostic to that. We will help the cloud agent become smarter by giving it access to your personal information, and we will help the on-device agent become smarter by enabling it to process tasks locally, without accessing the cloud. That's the direction we are headed with these technologies,' he explains. Qualcomm is placing its bet on a product category that has never truly been a hit with consumers. Smart glasses that use augmented and virtual reality have often felt more like tech demos than practical, usable products. However, smart glasses like the Meta Ray-Bans have made the concept more accessible, even though they only perform basic functions and don't yet offer the kind of futuristic features, such as augmented reality, that tech companies ultimately hope to bring to glasses — features that could one day even replace smartphones. Smart glasses like Meta's Ray-Bans may be the first step in that direction, but it's one step at a time. Katouzian says the next generation of computing devices that people will carry are glasses. However, the chips needed for the glasses need to be reimagined, and the processors designed for smartphones won't be a fit. 'The glasses, especially in the case of AR, operate at below 1 watt, whereas a PC operates at tens of watts, and a phone operates in the single-digit watt range. We are going from tens of watts to single digits, and now to below 1 watt – each step an order of magnitude lower in power consumption,' he explains. 'So of course, the chips we design for AR glasses take into consideration how long the battery needs to last. They minimise power usage while still providing enough performance to make the glasses useful.' While the Meta Ray-Ban glasses may be the most popular smart glasses on the market today, the technology powering them has some limitations. 'Today, with the Meta glasses, you have to download an app on your phone that then interfaces with the device. We don't think that's the best way to do it because the app, by default, wakes up the phone's large processors to actually do its work. When these two things come near each other, they realise that there's another computing device there. We can offload the compute through either low-power Bluetooth or low-power Wi-Fi into the smartphone. What we would like to do is develop better contextual awareness between the glasses and the phone,' Katouzian said. But Katouzian imagines a future where smart glasses will have a relationship similar to the one we have with our smartphones or smartwatches. This means the glasses, smartphones, and smartwatches will work together seamlessly, with each device having its role and excelling at what it does best. 'Just imagine a watch combined with a pair of glasses. The watch will tell you everything about your internal health, while the glasses provide information about your external environment. When combined, your health and surroundings become one. Everyone carries a phone, which is a very powerful computing tool that holds your personal information: your calendar, emails, texts, location, and many other daily essentials are all stored there. Now, combine that with the glasses and the watch, so I can offload computing tasks to the phone to do things for me. I could store a large model on the phone itself. It can answer questions like, 'Hey, what should I do today in Delhi?' The glasses will detect that it's cloudy and about to rain, while the phone knows your location and understands your areas of interest.' While the Meta-powered Ray-Bans don't yet have augmented reality capabilities, they do feature video cameras, speakers, and a functioning AI, which many users have found more useful than the AI use cases currently available on a phone. 'You can actually do many things with an assistant, or ask questions that you would otherwise have to type or figure out where to get the information from. What that means is the AI agent has to be with you all the time to be useful. You should be able to just wear the glasses and have access to the agent. Today, this happens through the phone because it's the only connection to the cloud. Tomorrow, another device on your body that can have a cellular modem is the watch. So the watch and glasses will become an important pair,' he said. Katouzian said the AI agent will, by default, be part of whatever device you are using, whether it's a phone, watch, or glasses. He added that Qualcomm is working on a way to put a cellular modem directly into the glasses. 'We fully plan to figure out how to embed a cellular modem in the glasses themselves. It's already in the watch today – there's no reason it can't be in the glasses. 'The glasses cannot be very heavy; otherwise, their usability and comfort start to diminish. We pay a lot of attention to packaging and partitioning our chipsets and software in such a way that the glasses can be used comfortably for a full day.' From recording a concert with the built-in cameras without taking the phone out to make a call, much like any pair of wireless earbuds with a voice assistant, smart glasses like the Meta Ray-Bans offer features similar to other modern consumer tech products. While Ray-Bans don't offer advanced features, their form factor allows certain functions to work better on the glasses, making everyday technology more useful and helpful. The smash success of Ray-Bans has opened a new market for others to pursue seriously, and look beyond smartphones, which have started to peak but still generate billions of dollars in revenue. Meta's Chief Executive Officer, Mark Zuckerberg, has admitted that the glasses have been a bigger hit than expected since their launch, and the demand for them outpaced Meta's ability to manufacture them. Katouzian is encouraging its OEMs to make smart glasses alongside smartphones and wearables. 'We have the ability to make devices contextually aware of each other so they don't need an app. If an OEM can build both the phone and the glasses, they can use our protocols to fully utilise what the phone offers or what the watch offers. I think that's how we want to proceed.' In India, Lenskart, which provides eye care solutions and retails computer glasses, sunglasses, and contact lenses, is launching a pair of smart glasses featuring a Qualcomm chip. 'With Lenskart, we put together our solution with a glass maker, an actual ODM elsewhere, and combined it with what Lenskart wanted to do. This combination will allow Lenskart to provide smart glasses to its customer base,' he said. Katouzian says the launch of smart glasses from Lenskart will help broaden the market for smart glasses in a country like India. Meta recently launched its Ray-Ban smart glasses in India, though they cost as much as a mid-range smartphone. Qualcomm has also set its sights on augmented reality and mixed reality as key target areas, diversifying its business beyond smartphones. The San Diego-based chip maker is heavily involved in Samsung's Project Moohan mixed reality headset, which will be powered by Google's new mixed reality OS- Android XR, designed for headsets and smart glasses. Anuj Bhatia is a personal technology writer at who has been covering smartphones, personal computers, gaming, apps, and lifestyle tech actively since 2011. He specialises in writing longer-form feature articles and explainers on trending tech topics. His unique interests encompass delving into vintage tech, retro gaming and composing in-depth narratives on the intersection of history, technology, and popular culture. He covers major international tech conferences and product launches from the world's biggest and most valuable tech brands including Apple, Google and others. At the same time, he also extensively covers indie, home-grown tech startups. Prior to joining The Indian Express in late 2016, he served as a senior tech writer at My Mobile magazine and previously held roles as a reviewer and tech writer at Gizbot. Anuj holds a postgraduate degree from Banaras Hindu University. You can find Anuj on Linkedin. Email: ... Read More
