Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X: Shaping the 2024 PC Market Landscape
Don McGuire, the Senior Vice President & Chief Marketing Officer of Qualcomm, unveiled a fresh branding strategy for the company’s PC chips. In an effort to enhance clarity, Qualcomm is stepping away from the perplexing 8cx nomenclature and is striving for a more distinctive approach as it seeks a significant presence in the PC market.
The Snapdragon X series will harness Qualcomm’s cutting-edge Oryon CPU architecture, complemented by the incorporation of the company’s Neural Processing Unit (NPU) – a specialized processor designed to accelerate artificial intelligence algorithms. Notably, several major players in the PC industry have also introduced analogous processors, marking a significant influx into the consumer market.
Qualcomm aims to endow the Snapdragon X series with a unique visual identity by featuring an iconic ‘fireball’ emblem on its new and platform badges. The company is anticipated to formally introduce the Snapdragon X series, possibly during the upcoming Snapdragon Summit scheduled for October 24-26.
Snapdragon X teaser, Source: Qualcomm
An essential aspect of the Snapdragon X branding strategy is the implementation of simplified tiering, addressing a challenge faced by many CPU manufacturers. Given Qualcomm’s history of somewhat imperfect naming conventions for mobile devices, a substantial transformation is indeed warranted. McGuire also pointed out that this name change is driven by a “monumental leap forward in computing.”
Evidently, Qualcomm’s ambitions are squarely set on rivaling Apple’s products, particularly their M-series System on a Chip (SoC), which powers ARM-based architecture for macOS systems. Currently, Qualcomm stands as the sole supplier of ARM chips for Windows, indicating a heightened focus on bolstering Windows support within the PC platform.
Qualcomm anticipates a pivotal moment in the realm of Windows PCs utilizing ARM architecture by the year 2024. Should the Snapdragon X series prove to be a formidable contender against some of the more budget-friendly Intel and AMD laptops, it has the potential to trigger a transformation in the CPU market share within the Windows ecosystem.
Source: Qualcomm, Tom’s Hardware
