Without a beating heart, the human body doesn’t function. For electronic devices such as smartphones or the computerthe heart is i microprocessors who inhabit its interior, as indispensable as they are little known. Qualcomm is the world’s leading company in the design of chips for mobile technology, but also tries to be so in the construction of the so-called ‘metaverse‘.
To find out more about his strategy and future plans in Spain, we spoke to Don McGuire, vice president and marketing director of Qualcomm, as part of the Snapdragon Summit, the annual congress that the company holds in Maui, Hawaii, and in which EL PERIÓDICO participated. invited by the company.
2022 has been a tough year for the tech sector, in general, and for the mobile market, with a drop in sales that has penalized your business. To what do they attribute this setback?
Macroeconomic conditions have been difficult. What struck us is that as we entered the pandemic there was a massive increase in the demand for electronic devices, but the supply chain was also disrupted. Our customers kept buying and buying to seize the moment. The turning point was when the world started to open up again and spending shifted from products to services, travel, concerts and everything people couldn’t do in those years. This has caused excessive inventories to build up all along the production chain, leading all parties from retailer to distributor to manufacturer to reduce chip demand. The entire tech ecosystem has been caught up in that inventory problem.
Qualcomm shares have lost a third of their value. Are the prospects better for 2023?
We are facing a cyclical problem and we believe that in two quarters it will recover its balance. Things will start to return to normal in mid-2023, but that will depend on how sales play out over the holiday season.
“Things will start getting back to normal in mid-2023”
Don McGuire, vice president of Qualcomm
In May, Pedro Sánchez met the president of Qualcomm in DavosChristian Amon. The government wants to attract investment from companies like Qualcomm to compete in the chip industry. What projects do you have in the country?
I know they have asked Qualcomm to do more in Spain and we are studying what to do with our different businesses. We have acquired virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) equipment in Valencia and are starting to bring people together in different areas. We have our sights set on Barcelona for Mobile World Congress and the talent that exists in the city.
productive meeting with @cristianoamon. We are the perfect place to develop XR applications and the AI ecosystem. In addition, Spain is starting a long-distance race to become a benchmark in the semiconductor sector and we want to @Qualcomm be a key partner. pic.twitter.com/0oErCajza2
— Pedro Sanchez (@sanchezcastejon) May 24, 2022
The term metaverse has become popular all over the world. In October, Qualcomm announced its partnership with Meta to integrate Snapdragon XR2 chips into Meta Quest virtual reality headsets. Is this market a new business opportunity?
We have been working in VR and AR for nearly ten years and have seen that every company has its own definition of what the metaverse is. We don’t care what it becomes or what people end up using it for, but we know we want to be the company that makes it possible. To access this experience you will need advanced connectivity (which does not exist yet) and a device, whether it’s a mobile phone or glasses. We have experience in both fields and that is why we will be the entry platform into the metaverse.
However, there is some mistrust as to what the metaverse will be and what voices will control it…
There are a lot of people badmouthing the metaverse and it’s partly due to the issues Mark Zuckerberg and Meta are having. There are a lot of changes of opinion about it and we followed it because we don’t want to be pigeonholed into a bad narrative. In general, the opinion is still quite positive, but we are focusing on innovation. We’ve been working on that technology since before there was all this noise.
Are all these expectations working for you or against you?
The wait will serve to accelerate its growth. And the more we can develop these technologies, the better the chances are that they will become a thing. Despite the criticisms, the truth is that both virtual reality and augmented reality will grow as technology improves.
“We don’t care if it ends up being the metaverse, but we want to be the company that makes it happen”
Don McGuire, vice president of Qualcomm
Will the poor prospects affect the marketing of Meta Quest Pro?
Meta has sold more Meta Quest and Meta Quest 2 devices than expected. In parallel, the ecosystem of VR and AR content creators has grown, which is crucial. The Meta Quest Pros have a better design, are smaller and more comfortable, but we’ll see how they fare. We are in a macroeconomic climate where people are switching from purchasing physical goods to experiences. I don’t know if that will hinder the success of Meta Quest Pro.
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Does augmented reality have a better chance of success than virtual reality?
I think from a consumer perspective it has more utility. Unlike virtual reality, augmented reality requires lighter devices that require less computational load. In the glasses you wear you may have some functions, but not all of them would be necessary because you already have your cell phone with you. In fact, only with a ‘smartphone’ can you already see new layers overexposed to reality. VR is more about getting out of one world and into another; RA is more to get information about us.
