HAWAII—During his keynote at the Snapdragon Tech Summit on Tuesday, Qualcomm President and CEO Cristiano Amon said it should be no surprise that Snapdragon is the No. 1 platform for premium Android smartphone devices.
Besides working closely with the leading OEMs around the world, Qualcomm is also working with “our dear friends at Google,” he said, before introducing Hiroshi Lockheimer, one of the founding members of the Android team at Google. Lockheimer was one of many guests on Qualcomm’s stage, but his presence was noteworthy given the two companies’ history together in the mobile ecosystem.
Amon started the segment by saying innovation in mobile happens first on Android, “every single time,” noting that 5G happened on Android a year before “any other platform,” which he then corrected to say “the other platform,” without specifically mentioning Apple’s iOS.
From Google’s perspective, the innovation that happens first on Android is great. Lockheimer said the reason they open-sourced Android to begin with was “we knew we couldn’t do it ourselves,” and “this is working exactly how we wanted it to work.”
Android was developed as a platform to serve “everyone,” but right now, there’s a keen interest in premium Android devices, according to Amon. Over the past couple years, people realized they wanted a better camera, better connectivity, better specs. “It is the fastest growing segment for us right now,” Amon said.
So, he asked, what have these two companies been doing together to deliver on the expectations for premium experiences on Android?
The world has changed since they started working on Android together so many years ago, Lockheimer noted, ticking off the many advanced gaming, camera and other features that Qualcomm is showing off this week. It used to be all about the phone, and “now it’s about the phone and all these other devices that surround it,” such as wearables, audio, laptop and tablet, he said. “Having these things work really better together becomes part of the experience and I think you’re doing that. You’re in all these devices.”
Whether it’s a computing device, a watch or ear bud – or even an automobile, it’s about taking the mobile experience wherever the consumer happens to be, according to Amon, who pointed out that both Qualcomm and Google chose a horizontal model where “everybody can innovate.”
When you compare the power of the ecosystem with “one single company” that’s trying to innovate on everything, then “we know that we are going to have an environment that innovation is going to happen faster on Android and Snapdragon,” Amon said.
Indeed, Android is at the center of the Snapdragon Tech Summit, where demos feature the latest and greatest in tech to improve sound quality, camera functions and security in premium Android devices.
On Tuesday, Google and Qualcomm announced that they’re collaborating on Neural Architecture Search (NAS), so they can create and optimize AI models automatically rather than manually. It will first be available on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 mobile platform and then available across the Qualcomm Technologies’ portfolio.
RELATED: Does Google’s Pixel move signal negative tide for Qualcomm?
Earlier this year, Google said it would use its own in-house chip for the Pixel 6 and Pro smartphones, representing a loss for Qualcomm. At the time, Qualcomm was quick to point out that it was continuing to work with Google.
Amon couldn’t resist one last question before Lockheimer left the stage: How do you feel about the partnership with Qualcomm?
“I think it’s great. You would expect me to say that but honestly, I think it’s wonderful,” Lockheimer said.