Qualcomm Claims New X85 Modem Creates 'Huge Delta' in Performance Versus Apple

[jz0309]

of course the latest QCOM modem will be faster, no question. But now they're throwing "AI" in, really? well it's the computing and Wall Street hype of the day/week/month/year and obviously QCOM wants to ride the wave.
What is now touted by QCOM as "AI" is nothing new, been around for ages ...

It reminds me of their benchmarks that the Snapdragon CPU/chip is faster than Apple's M chips, meaningless for the average buyer. Sales figures of the actual computers that contain that Snapdragon chip is what matters.

And back to modems, QCOM has known for a few years now that their market share will shrink due to Apple doing their own, and they have responded over the past few years but brining this up in this context, meaningless. Again, the average consumer (and that is more than 80%) does not know nor care about a Qualcomm modem or not.

 

[KevinN206]

No, because Qualcomm has the wrong focus.

Everything should be made to use as little energy as possible and at the same time providing decent performance.

Where Apple has to improve the C1, is being better at handling low signal areas and maybe latency. Higher transfer rate should have an extremely low priority.

Based on their marketing piece from their website, the X85 improves on speed, coverage, latency, and power efficiency. Obviously no one knows how much of an improvement there are.

 

[zarmanto]

Based on their marketing piece from their website, the X85 improves on speed, coverage, latency, and power efficiency. Obviously no one knows how much of an improvement there are.

It's the best thing since sliced bread! And oh -- it also slices bread!
- Qualcomm, probably

 

[KevinN206]

It's the best thing since sliced bread! And oh -- it also slices bread!
- Qualcomm, probably

It's simply a response to say that the X85 claims to focus on all of those aspects of a 5G modem including efficiency. The other person was suggesting that Qualcomm has the wrong focus by omitting efficiency.

 

[zarmanto]

It's simply a response to say that the X85 claims to focus on all of those aspects of a 5G modem including efficiency. The other person was suggesting that Qualcomm has the wrong focus by omitting efficiency.

Yup. And mine was just a tongue-in-cheek response to indicate that I am skeptical of the all-encompassing nature of their claims. If every single technological advance was truly everything that the marketing material made it out to be, we'd already be living on starships and visiting other solar systems. But last I checked...

 

[coolfactor]

What the heck is an "AI powered" modem?! This term is buzzed out of relevance by now.

AI is such a broad expanse of technologies. Yes, these marketing teams have been abusing it, but only because they want to reach the simpleminded folk.

I suspect this is a trained model embedded into the modem as firmware, so it's pre-trained machine learning (ML) tech, not the generative AI stuff. It's likely recognizing patterns and making decisions based on that. Predictive ML, which has been around for decades.

 

[coolfactor]

Apple is starting to feel like an outdated brand, clinging to past glories rather than pushing real innovation. Honestly, it’s getting pretty cringe.

OR .... Apple is being realistic and these other companies are pushing out technological advances faster than the world can utilize them?

What is an example of "real innovation" to you that doesn't align with work that Apple has been doing? A cellular modem that is super energy-efficient is pretty innovative, no?

 

[FlyingDutch]

Yeah, who would ever converge things down to a simple number to compare and brag about!?

View attachment 2488588

They are speaking about battery life , not signal reception, in that commercial. It is not that hard to understand the concept.

 

[FlyingDutch]

Sounds like Qualcomm is butt hurt over Apple leaving the fold. Gotta start comparing and trashing Apple just like Samsung always does when it feels the heat from Apple. Intel is still butt hurt years later. Everyone is touting about how they are superior to Apple. What does that say about Apple’s influence on the market?

Everyone on the market want to be apple…

 

[Ramandeepsingh]

it would only be good if Apple also could achieve low power usage. Throughput is almost never a good thing if it costs power.

 

[lkrupp]

it would only be good if Apple also could achieve low power usage. Throughput is almost never a good thing if it costs power.

The C1 already is more power efficient than the Qualcomm modem. Much more.

 

[Mother Nature]

What the heck is an "AI powered" modem?! This term is buzzed out of relevance by now.

It's probably more AI marketing than anything tangible, since Qualcomm didn't explain how AI helps.