In this vignette of The 5G Factor, Ron Westfall and Olivier Blanchard discuss why the launch of the Snapdragon G Series can strengthen the expanding diversity in gaming content, capabilities, and cost to enable a wider range of handheld gaming devices and form factors. The discussion focused on:
Qualcomm Makes Waves with Snapdragon G Series Launch. Qualcomm created a marketing splash when it unveiled its Snapdragon G Series portfolio designed for the next generation of handheld gaming devices. Key highlights included the Snapdragon G Series now spans three tiers, G1, G2, and G3, with Snapdragon G3x Gen 2 Platform debuting as the newest enthusiast-class processor. We analyze the competitive impact of the Snapdragon G series launch on the 5G ecosystem as well as break down the capabilities of the respective G1, G2, and G3 offerings.
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Disclosure: The Futurum Group is a research and advisory firm that engages or has engaged in research, analysis, and advisory services with many technology companies, including those mentioned in this article. The author does not hold any equity positions with any company mentioned in this article.
Analysis and opinions expressed herein are specific to the analyst individually and data and other information that might have been provided for validation, not those of The Futurum Group as a whole.
Transcript:
Ron Westfall: I think we can now start drilling into, okay, what are some of the ecosystem players doing to take gaming to the next level, if you will?
And I think one thing that impressed us, that stood out, at least in terms of a marketing splash, was the fact that Qualcomm last month came out with their Snapdragon G series portfolio designed for, you guessed it, the Next-Gen handheld gaming devices. So this is one segment of the overall cloud gaming universe, but obviously it’s a very important one.
Now for me, the key highlights included the fact that the Snapdragon G series handheld gaming portfolio now spans three tiers, G1, G2, and G3, and specifically with Snapdragon G3x Gen 2 platform as the newest enthusiast class processor.
And I do like the marketing reference there, to enthusiast class. It really brings home the point that there’s a dedicated audience out there when it comes to a gaming cultist almost. But with that also in mind, what else was important was that the expansion of the Snapdragon G series product line is addressing that growing diversity and gaming content, the capabilities and the cost, again, to enable a wider range of handheld gaming devices and form factors. And I think we agree that’s always going to be important.
Now, in terms of, okay, who’s onboarded already, at least with this specific Qualcomm initiative, I think there’s some important names including AyaNeo, Huaqin, Inventec, Thundercomm, and others. So hopefully, I did some justice of pronouncing a couple of those players, but they’re understood in the gaming, certainly segment, as very important contributors. And as a result, they’re actually collaborating with Qualcomm to get more of these devices out in the market, basically being powered by these new Snapdragon G series capabilities.
And so, Olivier, what are your impressions? What I guess impressed you the most about this new Qualcomm Snapdragon G series announcement?
Olivier Blanchard: Actually a lot. So one thing that I don’t know if our listeners and viewers know this, but Qualcomm with the Snapdragon SoC in mobile has been a leader in developing mobile gaming as well already.
So the departure with this steam deck style handheld dedicated game controller when they first came out with it was a little bit of a head scratcher with the analyst community. I know that some of my colleagues were a little bit skeptical about this, but the form factor was solid and I think they went to market with a really good value prop and really good hardware as well.
So jump to now and we have this expansion of the line. So as you said, it’s a little bit of a mouthful, but there are three levels. You have the G3x Gen 2 which is the enthusiast class version. So it’s basically the premium. So it’s best in class. We’re going to circle back to this in a second. But it’s meant to also be compatible with XR glasses. So you don’t necessarily just look at the screen, you’re going to be able to hook up or connect your favorite set of XR glasses to be able to play that way. It has a bunch of Kryo 8 cores, GPUs… It’s super solid.
But what’s interesting is the expansion downward. So you have the G2 Gen 1 which is the mid-range. There’s not a whole lot to say about this one other than it is mid-range. If you don’t want to spraying for all bells and whistles but you want something a little bit better than the Gen 1, I mean the G1 Gen 1, excuse me, you have this. But the most interesting one in there is actually the G1 Gen 1. So they’re all kind of tongue twisters. I have no say in the nomenclature here.
But essentially, it’s a version of this that is designed to be for streaming. So this is all cloud gaming. And so the discussion that we started with the push for cloud gaming and the need for really fast low latency, low jitter connections for gaming manifests itself into that class of device that G1 Gen 1 in the case of Snapdragon, where… You can connect to WiFi and you’re going to be fine, but the point is to be able to take that device with you anywhere on your commuter train, in the streets, in a park, wherever you go so that you can play anywhere and you have this ubiquitous connectivity.
And so I think what we’re seeing is the hardware vendors essentially answering the call and saying, “Okay, these are the devices that are going to pair with these new 5G capabilities and these services and the two together are going to work for you.” And so we’re closing the loop a little bit on that value proposition finally. It’s been a few years coming, but it’s starting to happen.
Ron Westfall: No, it’s definitely most welcome. In fact, when we were on that conference call, the question I asked was, how will Qualcomm define success with this initiative over the next year and really the response was they want to make sure that they capture what the OEMs are discovering as the most important features, the most important capabilities that the users out there, the customers out there are demanding and driving.
So in other words, it’s really a collaborative objective here. Let’s find out how to continuously improve the processor capabilities so that the overall gaming experience will be all the more rewarding and for that matter, more potential revenue streams for all the parties out there. And I think that’s certainly good news, for example, the Android community.
Other insights from The Futurum Group:
IAA Mobility 2023: Qualcomm and JLR Transform In-Vehicle XP with 5G
5G Factor VRN: Qualcomm Raises On-Device AI Processing Awareness
5G Factor: Can 5G and Cloud Gaming Join Hands?
Author Information
Ron is an experienced, customer-focused research expert and analyst, with over 20 years of experience in the digital and IT transformation markets, working with businesses to drive consistent revenue and sales growth.
Ron holds a Master of Arts in Public Policy from University of Nevada — Las Vegas and a Bachelor of Arts in political science/government from William and Mary.
Olivier Blanchard is Research Director, Intelligent Devices. He covers edge semiconductors and intelligent AI-capable devices for Futurum. In addition to having co-authored several books about digital transformation and AI with Futurum Group CEO Daniel Newman, Blanchard brings considerable experience demystifying new and emerging technologies, advising clients on how best to future-proof their organizations, and helping maximize the positive impacts of technology disruption while mitigating their potentially negative effects. Follow his extended analysis on X and LinkedIn.
