Qualcomm Signals Upturn in the Smartphone Sector

A fresh breeze is blowing through the ranks of the smartphone market, fueled by Qualcomm's latest revenue forecast, which shows that the processor and 5G modem manufacturer is exceeding expectations. The company particularly stands out for its focus on chips for demanding AI applications. The company, based in San Diego, provided insight into its financial outlook for the third fiscal quarter by anticipating revenue between $8.8 and $9.6 billion, while market experts had only calculated an average forecast of $9.05 billion. Such a positive outlook strengthened the chip giant’s stock by about four percent in after-hours trading. A look at the past quarter, which ended on March 24, reveals a revenue growth of one percent – nearly $9.4 billion. Net income experienced an even more remarkable steep increase, climbing 37 percent to about $2.33 billion. Qualcomm is an essential component of the smartphone industry, not least through the integration of its modems into Apple's iPhones and as the core in numerous Android phones. Qualcomm's results are considered a reliable indicator of the health of the entire smartphone market, which after an initial surge at the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis, experienced a phase of weakening.