Qualcomm is said to be charging its customers more for the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. These price hikes are not going to stop at this chipset release because a company executive has hinted the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 to be even more expensive. It appears that the San Diego firm needs some way to financially make up for the custom Oyron cores since that is reportedly the magic behind next year’s chipset.
Qualcomm Senior Vice President says striking a balance of power and efficiency with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4's custom CPU cores is an expensive endeavor
As the majority of you know, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 is said to fuel Android flagships in 2025 and will be the first from Qualcomm for this product category to feature Oryon cores. The company has already previewed these cores in the Snapdragon X Elite, but that latter is going to be found in portable computers rather than smartphones. Regardless, developing custom CPU cores is backed by research and development that costs companies like Qualcomm millions, so a return on their investment is also a part of their goals.
Now, according to a question asked by Android Authority regarding pricing, Qualcomm’s Senior Vice President Chris Patrick said that custom CPU cores do not necessarily have to be expensive but also mentioned that Qualcomm needs to bring a balance to cost, power consumption, and performance. Sadly, achieving this balance would result in increasing the price of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4.
The upside to these cost increases is that Qualcomm can ‘pursue really astonishing levels of performance,’ making next year’s chipset release the fastest in the world. Even now, in Geekbench 6’s multi-core results, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 ended up beating Apple’s A17 Pro, becoming the fastest mobile SoC in this category, so if Qualcomm wants the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 to be cut with different cloth, it will have little choice but charge more.
For those that do not know, Qualcomm was reportedly charging its smartphone partners $160 apiece for the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. With the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 carrying a bigger hike, phone makers such as Samsung, Xiaomi, and others may have to start charging customers more for their flagships as their margins will suffer considerably.
News Source: Android Authority
