The News: At the recent IFA event in Berlin, Qualcomm and Bose announced their continued collaboration. Bose will use Qualcomm’s S5 Audio SoCs in their future audio devices offering feature-rich wireless earbuds, headsets, and speakers. The S5 Sound Platform offers ultra-low power with double the computing power than the prior generation. Read the full Press Release from Qualcomm.

Bose Will Use Qualcomm’s S5 Audio SoCs to Deliver Excellent Audio Experiences

Analyst Take: Bose tapping Qualcomm’s S5 audio SoCs to deliver feature-rich audio experiences is a smart move. The market for premium audio devices continues to be propelled by a number of trends such as consumers wanting premium audio experiences as they stream music at home, working out at the gym, watching content on their smartphones, and immersed in virtual reality or gaming. Hybrid workers are also leveraging premium ear buds or headset devices that provide excellent audio and noise cancellation features while they use collaboration applications. It’s no doubt that these trends will continue to drive the market forward so it’s great to see Bose and Qualcomm extend their partnership.

Premium Platform for Premium Audio

At the IFA event, Bose confirming that it will use Qualcomm’s S5 Audio system-on-chips (SoCs) for its line of premium headphones, speakers, soundbars and earbuds reinforces that the company is committed to using a premium platform. Bose devices are in highly competitive markets with rivals such as Apple that command significant share in the TWS hearables segment. And Bose is already making a play for a large segment of the market. Bose is already incorporating the Qualcomm S5 Audio SoC is in its Bose QuietComfort Earbuds 2 that compete with Apple AirPods Pro 2 both of which are in the premium TWS hearables segment.

The Qualcomm S5 Audio SoC is the company’s premium-tier audio platform that is optimized for artificial intelligence offering ultra-low power doubling the compute power versus the prior generation. The Qualcomm S5 Audio SoC features a quad-core processor architecture with a dual-core 32-bit processor application subsystem (up to 80MHz) and a dual core 240MHz programmable DSP audio subsystem which is quick. The Qualcomm S5 Audio SoC also includes Bluetooth 5.3 radio with Bluetooth LE Audio and supports Google Fast Pair.

The system-on-chip also supports wake-word and button activated digital assistants which include Amazon Alexa Voice and Google Assistant which is great since more consumers are leveraging voice activated functionality than ever before simplifying their lives. The Qualcomm S5 SoC also features its third-generation Adaptive Noise Cancellation (ANC) which helps mitigate background noises such as howling wind making it perfect when you are out and about, and an important call comes in. The ability to not have to step away and find an enclosed area and remain present at what you are doing is an excellent benefit, in my opinion.

The Continued Partnership Will Bring More Success

Wrapping it up, the continued partnership with Bose and Qualcomm is an excellent choice and one that I think will continue to bear fruit in the future especially as consumers demand high quality audio experiences and functionality with their devices. The future sounds great for both companies and optimistic about future share gains for Bose.

Disclosure: Futurum Research 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 Futurum Research as a whole.