Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) CEO Paul Jacobs said that the company is no longer impacted by supply constraints for its newest chipsets, a problem that it faced earlier this year. Instead, the company marched ahead with strong fiscal fourth quarter as demand for smartphones accelerated.
Jacobs said that the issue of limited supply of 28-nanometer chips has been resolved. "We're on track to exit this quarter with supply and demand in line," he told MarketWatch, adding, "We're expecting that growth is going to continue."
Jacobs said the strong demand, consumers in emerging markets upgrading to smartphones and a resolution of the supply issues have all benefited the company's bottom line. He told analysts during the company's earnings conference call Wednesday that Qualcomm expects those trends to continue "despite a somewhat cautious macroeconomic outlook."
"There are a lot of trends that are coming together for us," Jacobs told Bloomberg. "Demand continues to go up."
Qualcomm reported net income in the quarter of $1.27 billion, up 20 percent from $1.06 billion in the year-ago period. Sales jumped 18 percent year-over-year to $4.87 billion. The company reported shipments of 141 million MSM chipset units, up 11 percent year-over-year and flat from the last quarter.
Despite the storing earnings and better-than-expected outlook for the next quarter, some analysts worry that any kind of economic slowdown will crimp smartphone sales. They also worry that Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Samsung Electronics are dominating too much of the smartphone market, crowding out other vendors and stealing their profits.
"One thing we try to do to maintain share is to drive the technology faster," Jacobs told MarketWatch, noting that he views the smartphone market as a "barbell," with OEMs largely at either the high or low ends. "Whether it stays that way or not is a little unclear."
For more:
- see this release
- see this Bloomberg article
- see this MarketWatch article
- see this Reuters article
- see this CNET article
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