According to Qualcomm, their Snapdragon X series chips that have powered the first wave of Copilot + PCs laptops could see their starting prices come in as low as $700 starting as soon as next year.
During an FY24 Q3 earnings call, Qualcomm CEO and president Cristiano Amon explained to investors that he plans for the chipmaker to edge into lower price categories next year to widen the company’s audience for its new X-series System on a Chip (SoC).
“As we look forward to 2025, in addition to new design wins, our X series product roadmap will expand to address PCs with retail prices as low as $700 without compromising NPU performance,”
Cristiano Amon – Qualcomm CEO and President
Amon doesn’t partition the sales of its X Elite and X Plus powered PCs into their own transparent earnings category, but whatever numbers they are currently working with have him bullish on AI PC sector and he expects it to be the “biggest driver of diversification for the company.”
To manifest Snapdragon’s ambitious goal to be the leading brand in AI PCs, Amon hints at another wave of X Elite and X Plus powered PCs to debut at IFA next month. Qualcomm will further flood the market with devices running its updated ARM chips built for PCs before competitors such as Intel and AMD have a chance to rebuff with their own updated SoCs.
While Amon doesn’t get into details about the list of partners aiming to hit these lower baseline prices next year, he does mention that the company is already working on its second wave of Copilot + PCs with OEMs which is a good sign for Microsoft’s rejuvenated Windows on Arm efforts.
Unlike 2017, Amon can point to some of its Snapdragon X PCs having “already sold out” as a sign of an evolving demand for ARM-based Windows devices this time around.
During the release of the Surface Pro X back in 2017, Qualcomm was linked exclusively to Microsoft and the poor acceptance of the convertible at the time seemed to hinder both companies’ ability to roadmap a grander scale of development and distribution of Windows on ARM’s future.
However, not only is Qualcomm working with a wider portfolio of well-established PC partners, but Amon noted that the company also tagged two large Chinese-based OEMs in long term licensing contracts for their ARM architecture.
