Qualcomm profits down 90%, Snapdragon sales still going strong

It’s been a rough ride for Qualcomm in the past few months. The ongoing legal battle with Apple is spelling nothing but trouble for the SoC maker, and the recently released Q4 2017 financials prove it painstakingly. Overall profits are now down 90% and revenue took a small 4.5% hit, but at least Qualcomm still knows how to market its products, as the sales are up 13%.

Even though analysts expected worse figures, the latest financial report shows a US$5.96 billion revenue, which is attributed to strong Snapdragon SoC sales. CEO Steve Mollenkopf is confident that the SoC sales will continue to grow in the coming years. However, net income registered at US$168 million, down from US$1.6 billion last year. As expected, this was due to Apple’s legal actions that involved its own contract manufacturers. Wall Street analysts wouldn’t believe the Qualcomm stocks would hold that well after the entire Apple debacle, but the steady sales provided enough confidence not to upset the stocks too much, in spite of rumors that Apple could strike deals with other SoC makers for its future iPhones and iPads.

Right now, there’s no telling which of the two big companies is winning. Apple filed a US$1 billion lawsuit over unfair royalty practices, while Qualcom attempted to impose a ban of all iPhone products existing on the Chinese market. 2018 will most likely be decisive in this case.

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