Qualcomm will reveal New Snapdragon x Laptop CPUS Next week, to feed low -cost AI devices in India. The company targets the midsize laptop segment in the country. The chip manufacturer’s OEM partners are expected to introduce new Copilot+ laptops at prices of $ 600 (approximately RS. 52,000) and support AI resources on the device. The company is also expanding through retail channels – set up Snapdragon’s first experience zone on a chroma exit in Mumbai on Thursday.
Prior to the launch of the new Snapdragon X laptop models, Gadgets 360 sat with Kedar KondapVice -Senior Product Management President of Qualcomm, to discuss the expanding chip manufacturer’s plans in India and how its retail expansion fits its strategy.
About Qualcomm’s efforts to bring its Snapdragon chips based on armor to Laptops in India
Kedar Kondap: Our journey on PCs started a few years ago – we launched a new CPU, which was the Qualcomm Oryon CPU, and our intention was to offer the best performance, battery life and AI performance. We did this in three different layers – Snapdragon x Elite, Snapdragon x Plus and the new Snapdragon X.
The ideal point for PCs in India is about $ 600 (approximately RS. 52,000). The Snapdragon X Elite has directed PCs that cost more than $ 1,000 (approximately RS. 86,700), X plus covers the PCs priced at $ 800 (approximately RS. 69,400) and above, and the latest Snapdragon X was designed for US $ 600 (approximately rs. 52,000) or more.
The consumer understands Snapdragon in telephone and we want to boost the same association with Snapdragon on PCs. We have just launched a new Snapdragon experience zone in one of Chroma’s main stores in Mumbai. And so, the intention is to familiarize the Indian consumer with the association between the phone and the PC while showing all the different experiences allowed by these chipsets.
As the laptop market in India responded to Snapdragon -powered laptops
Kedar Kondap: I think it’s too early, but it’s been promising. PC penetration in India is about 10 %. We want to ensure that consumers understand the benefits of technology and the advances we are doing on PCs. We did the same thing with the phones. When you think of premium Android premium phones, they offer a long battery, CPU and camera performance, reliable GPS and more. We want to direct the same association on PCs.
Microsoft has been a fantastic partner. First, they brought all Copilot+ experiences exclusively to Snapdragon. At the same time, other PC OEMs such as Dell, HP, Lenovo and Asus built their main platform products at different Snapdragon X, X Plus and X Elite prices, including India. This process usually takes a little time. Today we have launched several devices at Croma and you will hear more from our partners on February 24 about Snapdragon X.
What led to Snapdragon’s retail expansion and how the launch of a chroma experience zone fits into Qualcomm’s strategy
Kedar Kondap: Look, we came from a telephone legacy and the way a consumer buys a phone is very different from how they buy a PC. Not every buyer wants to play and feel a phone, but there are still a large number of customers who want to try a PC before buying it. Second, more specifically in India, the consumer refers to Snapdragon in phones, but they may not yet relate to Snapdragon PCs.
People want to be able to understand what is exactly the general AI and what they can do with it in a laptop. There are many cases of use for creators, students, corporate employees or software engineers. We want people to associate Snapdragon PCs with premium experiences with Windows, so that when they enter a Croma store, they can try these experiences in Snapdragon’s new experience zone, which is not available on other retailers.
By improving compatibility with popular applications invoked by Indian users in Snapdragon laptops
Kedar Kondap: For starters, Microsoft telemetry data show that 93 % of globally used applications today are native. I like to think about the compatibility of application in three phases. Microsoft has done a fantastic job with Prism, which is the arm emulator that offers reliable performance. Second, we now have hundreds of apps that are already being running natively in the Snapdragon PCs.
And finally, these applications can take advantage of the heterogeneous architecture we have on ISVs – for example, when applications are performed at CPU, but some tasks are transferred to GPU and NPU. This is when you start to see benefits such as battery improvement. Therefore, most of the time, for consumers in India, most main applications are probably working natively on Snapdragon PCs.
When it comes to LLMs, we are already working with the majority – if not all – suppliers. With our Hub Qualcomm there, developers can upload and compile their entire code. While the app is on the AI hub, it is perfect enough for the developer to take this app and just support it. We give all the tools the documentation to make it as perfect as possible.
Competing in an Ai-Drivel computer market using Snapdragon’s diversified portfolio in the price segments
Kedar Kondap: The only thing we constantly kept in Snapdragon X, X Plus and X Elite chips is the same NPU with 45 tops. We kept the same DDR in all chips to ensure that all these LLMs and Generative AI models have the entire bandwidth they will need as they climb the other parts of the layers technologies. At the same time, the models are also being optimized.
So what you could do with, say, a 13 billion parameter model, now you can run as models of 20 to 40 million parameters while still reaching comparable accuracy. As a result, we can offer a reliable performance battery life throughout the product level, using the same oryon CPUS that climbs and are the same 45 tops for AI use cases.
About the possibility of customers who cling to laptops powered by ARM -based processors for longer
Kedar Kondap: If a consumer enters a store, he will need to understand that some devices inherited from Snapdragon -based architecture do not have an NPU. Therefore, you are not proof of the future of your purchase you buy a PC without the performance of 45 tops, it may be “outdated” within a few weeks or months. AI Generativa is moving quickly, so you would not buy a PC from the future.
When you think of smartphones, consumers didn’t update so fast at first. But when they saw the benefits of technology, India consumers quickly moved from a feature phone to a smartphone that allowed features such as clicking on images, browsing the web, watching content without a TV, and so on. Eventually, customers started updating for telephones with larger screens or 5G connectivity. Therefore, as consumers are more aware of what they are receiving, they may be more willing to spend and use a better device.
The PC market has not seen this level of excitement for years, but we want to bring it back with Snapdragon’s experience zones. When consumers start to see the benefits, such as “Ok, this PC lasts a long time” or “I don’t need an outdoor camera, because this PC optimizes built -in camera performance”, or “saves my time with general AI resources” ” ,,
Working with educational institutions in India to increase the awareness of arms -based computers
Kedar Kondap: We are making a lot of university commitments around the world, and we are becoming as ubiquitous as possible for children and showing exactly what they can do with AI models in these PCs.
And again, although we want to grow quickly, we also want to make sure we understand if we solve any of our application problems before we go to a university. In certain student communities, they may want a certain set of applications that are not yet necessarily ported.
Therefore, although it is a large audience for us, we need to make sure we spend time, working with all developers, just as we do in the company and commercial space. As part of our developer communities, we also provide access to Snapdragon PCs to help them understand the platform.
Comparing PCs AI moved to Snapdragon with the traditional X86 systems that are now starting to offer AI resources
Kedar Kondap: Performing everything in the cloud is not economically viable-we will precede AI on the device, you will need some cloud computing and a hybrid version that uses a little of both. I think the fact that everyone is responding by providing more access to the device just says the importance of where it is going. When it comes to Snapdragon X, I don’t think there is a competitor today that even supports 45 tops in performance in this price segment.
Making technology moved to AI more accessible through Qualcomm’s retail expansion
Kedar Kondap: We are training dealers and retailers’ sales team about AI technology available on Snapdragon devices, and we can also demonstrate better AI tools in experience zones such as the one we have just opened in chroma. You can show the user what you can do with the device, instead of just talking about it by performing tasks such as increasing images or features such as DJ PRO, intended for musicians.
In Qualcomm, we have over 3,000 Qualcomm engineers using AI to write several million lines of code through Codegen. Being able to see this personally in a store is different. The customer also realizes that the PC continues to understand the user and their needs over time. When we are in a retail environment, and the retail staff may explain that a customer can get this experience in this $ 600 laptop (approximately RS. 52,000) or perform these additional tasks on a $ 1,000 model (approximately RS. 86,700), customers can then decide to buy a laptop with AI resources based on their budget.
In possible Plans of partnership with OEMs in exclusive stores that sell only PCs moved to Snapdragon
Kedar Kondap: I cannot share details of what we are working at the moment, but, as I said, our first zone of Croma experience in India is now open to show the capabilities of Snapdragon PCs. We’ll see how you go. It is designed to get closer to the consumer, ensuring that the same Snapdragon brand that consumers trust a phone today is what they can trust PCs or XR or, wearables or any of the other devices that feed experience today. Think about it as a journey in which we are and want to relate to the consumer as soon as possible.
Some answers have been condensed and slightly edited for clarity.
