Qualcomm and Iridium Communications have recently announced the end of their partnership to bring satellite services to smartphones. This decision was made due to the lack of adoption of the technology by smartphone manufacturers.
The partnership between Qualcomm and Iridium was announced earlier this year, and the two companies successfully developed and demonstrated the technology. However, smartphone manufacturers showed hesitancy in adopting the technology as it was proprietary to Qualcomm and Iridium.
A spokesperson from Qualcomm stated, “Smartphone OEMs have indicated a preference towards standards-based solutions for satellite connectivity in mobile devices. We expect to continue to collaborate with Iridium on standards-based solutions while discontinuing efforts on the proprietary solution that was introduced earlier this year.”
Iridium CEO Matt Desch expressed disappointment in the partnership not immediately yielding results, but he believes that the industry is moving towards increased satellite connectivity in consumer devices. He mentioned that major mobile network operators and device manufacturers, led by Apple, still plan to provide expanded coverage and new satellite-based features to their customers.
Desch also stated, “Our global coverage and regulatory certainty make us well suited to be a key player in this emerging market.”
With the termination of the agreements with Qualcomm, Iridium can now directly re-engage with smartphone OEMs, other chipmakers, and smartphone operating system developers that the company had been collaborating with previously.
Iridium also plans to pursue new relationships with “smart device OEMs” for both existing and future service plans.
