It has long been rumored that Qualcomm is facing overheating issues with the Snapdragon 810. This chip is supposed to power flagships like the Galaxy S6 and LG G4 this year. Overheating issues are believed to push back production which would ultimately delay release times for manufacturers relying on the new chip. A recent report claimed that Samsung will use its own Exynos processors in all Galaxy S6 models and that it will drop Snapdragon 810 for the new flagship entirely. Some well known market analysts are skeptical about these reports and believe that this won’t happen.
First up is Tim Long of BMO Capital Markets who points out that Samsung’s internal share of using Exynos processors in its own devices went down from 70 percent in 2012 to just 20 percent in 2014. It seems virtually impossible for the company to reverse this share decline within a couple of months.
Then comes Timothy Arcuri from Cowen who writes that their work has long suggested that Qualcomm has fixed the issue, they believe the issue was present at the base layers and not metal as mentioned in some reports, so production for Snapdragon 810 is merely “~2-3mos behind schedule.”
The analyst mentions the report which speculates that all Galaxy S6 models will have Exynos processors, “we consider this UNLIKELY,” writes Arcuri, concluding that Samsung might launch the Galaxy S6 in Korea with its Exynos processors and delay shipments for other markets to make up for Qualcomm’s delayed release of the Snapdragon 810.