Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM), MediaTek and other chipset companies are increasingly helping their OEM partners and other customers get phone components such as speakers and camera lenses as a way to juice their business, Reuters reports. As average smartphone prices continue to decline, more device makers are seeking to pack what were once high-end features into phones with lower prices. That has forced device makers to take measures to keep their costs low as they push down market. That dynamic has forced price competition among silicon suppliers and has led them to seek out and test components for device makers so that they can enhance the chipsets' audio and photography technologies.
"In the past, Qualcomm would just offer the chips and the manufacturer would do the whole device," David Tokunaga, a senior director in product management at Qualcomm, told Reuters. "Now we offer a whole hardware ecosystem that makes it very easy for customers to just plug and play what they want." Article