Does anyone think a major downfall for Qualcomm is they make only supporting products and not end user products?
20 replies (most recent on top)
A product can have an American title but be assembled overseas. iPhone is considered an American product but nothing is built in America … so yes a consumer end product can be made by an American company and be profitable
Old timer here. Qualcomm built OmniTracks. Its easy to control your profits when no one else could do it. Qualcomm depended Motorola in Schaumberg could design working CDMA phones on their own back in the 90's but they didn't.
We were brought into GlobalStar because we had the best chance to make it work...
The idea that you can come up with a consumer product at San Diego COL that Asia won't have a cheaper copy in two quarters... Not possible.
Management isn't there and honestly, neither is engineering.
The only remaining hill to climb at a possible profit is automotive. If you're wondering why I won't buy a Tesla, ask my car insurance.
The person below doesn’t know what a B2B product is… a b2b product is when a company sells to a wholesaler and not directly to the customer. By your response below you have no idea what you are talking about!
Qualcomm employees don’t know who Qualcomm’s customers are at least management does know the customer and is selling products to their customers…. From this thread Qualcomm employees are lost
@3twi. I think you're missing OP's point. I don't think anyone misunderstands what the management vision is. I think people are thinking the vision needs to be expanded, because the company, in their opinion, is in trouble.
"Making a b2b product is more challenging from an engineering standpoint."
I totally disagree with this statement.
Wow! Maybe qualcomm is suffering bc it’s own employees do not understand their own products. Qualcomm does not make an end user product for businesses. Qualcomm makes parts that are easily replaced. Samsung and Apple are literally making their own chips to put in their end users products. No major company is making their own ERP to run their business and when a company gets big enough they move away from their custom ERP and move to SAP or other major ERP companies. I can see why qualcomm is struggling so much and why people don’t understand management vision for the company. I almost think the person below has to be joking but I am afraid he is not
Looking posts like from @3ubj , no wonder Q needs to layoff regularly! If Walmart is the customer for AWS, then AWS is B2B (business-2-business for the uninitiated! ) Not business to end-user! Qualcomm is also B2B.
Sorry but you don’t seem to understand who the end user is for AWS. ERP systems are not meant for customers at Walmart nor are ERP systems designed for customers at Walmart. Walmart is the end customer for and ERP system. AWS end customer are large businesses …. Hope this helps…. It would be wise to understand who a customer is and who the product is being made for…. ERP is not a supporting product or raw material - it is a product itself….
@2qre should take less than a second to understand you can't give your you grandmom AWS api's. Dexcomm products are end-user.
AWS is definitely and end user product - think about it for a second and you should understand. Nvidia definitely makes end user products but it also makes “custom upgraded products” - think of a car getting an upgraded turbo or fuel pump … this is their model. No one makes parts like Nvidia…
@ovq is correct. @1yjr is mostly wrong except for the "current mindset part". Nvidia and Avgo don't make end products but very successful. AWS is also not an end product. Making a b2b product is more challenging from an engineering standpoint. For end-product, need someone with gr8 aesthetic sense like Steve Jobs.
Layoffs around the corner
The story below is partial true. Qualcomm started making cell phones bc CDMA was new and no one wanted to use it. But the business was a failure from the start. But it did prove that CDMA would be viable and thus Qualcomm turned to a supplier of end products
Qualcomm once had mobile manufacturing business which was sold to Kyocera.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyocera
"Also in 2000, Kyocera acquired the mobile phone manufacturing operations of Qualcomm Incorporated to form Kyocera Wireless Corp."
Leaders are there to get promotion courtesy work of low rung employees!!! Buzzword???? FOLLOW... Following... +1... to be continued... .......
..... shhhhhh... meanwhile I focus on my stocks and passive income rentals. Company go to he-l!!
AIC100 AI accelerator it is end user product, go to market for 4 years, what's the sales volume? QC has lost the AI opportunity. Nobody respects market needs, good at selling PPT only. Agree with @1yjr+1nuaE7DN
GPS tracking was an end product that Qualcomm produced along with the our emailing software…. So end user products define our DNA…. But it’s been so long everyone that worked on those products are long gone…. Can it be revived??
Going straight to consumer with consumer-quality excellence is simply is not in the DNA of the current slew of the many clueless, lazy people in power. In order to really deliver competitive, high quality end-products, the amount of house-cleaning required at all levels to fix the mindset would be staggering.
The current mind set is:
- Make cute PowerPoint presentations with pretty pictures to "impress" the boss.
- Make cute DEMOs for trade shows.
- Make cute YouTube videos so outsiders think Q is doing "something".
- Contribute financially to universities in "collaborative efforts" to get token Q names on their conference papers.
It's all smoke and mirrors, to give an impression. A REAL product requires the kind of time, manpower, patience, and resources that these gimmicky mangers we have today would NEVER be able to comprehend, much less deliver. Think Apple. Think Different. Ain't gonna happen at a "Fast-Follower", Think-Same company.
In the past Qualcomm did not want to cause friction by competing with end user product producers - so they never created end user products. The thought was no matter who wins at the end user level Qualcomm would supply to any end user maker… then the business model changed and end users begin making their own hardware and Qualcomm never changed their business model…. Can Qualcomm change? Who knows but something will have to change bc margin are only going to shrink every year