Samsung and Qualcomm both attach great importance to their long-standing partnership, as evidenced by the fact that the head of Samsung’s mobile division, TM Roh, personally appeared on stage during the ongoing Snapdragon Summit 2024, where Qualcomm unveiled the Snapdragon 8 Elite.
“We love Samsung,” Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon said as he welcomed Roh to the stage. While Roh’s remarks at the summit did not include product-related announcements or teasers, his presence spoke volumes for the relationship at an event where Qualcomm has highlighted its cross-industry partnerships as much as it has touted its new products.
Qualcomm’s co-branding and marketing efforts with its partners have increased significantly in recent years to bring much more focus to the Snapdragon brand, and many of its partners have been happy to share the spotlight. Whether it’s with Microsoft and Copilot+ PCs, Meta giving shoutouts to Qualcomm at its events, or any number of device makers prominently advertising their use of Qualcomm’s chipsets.
None of these partnerships are perhaps as unique as the one Qualcomm has with Samsung. The Korean giant is often both customer and competitor, as its semiconductor division makes Exynos chipsets that compete directly for orders from the mobile division, which buys Snapdragon chipsets from Qualcomm. For example, this year’s Galaxy S24 and S24+ use Exynos 2400 in most markets, while the Galaxy S24 Ultra uses Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy globally. Last year’s Galaxy S23 series used Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy globally across the entire series. On the other hand, Samsung’s foldable phones have only used Snapdragon chips since day one.
Qualcomm has particularly facilitated Samsung over the past two years, giving it a slightly overclocked version of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 and Gen 3 chips, which were labeled as “for Galaxy” versions. Samsung is far from the only flagship Android device maker to buy top-of-the-line chipsets from Qualcomm, pretty much every other OEM does, but this has allowed a crucial differentiator for Samsung’s devices in a sea of ​​Snapdragon -powered flagships.
Some companies are fine with sharing the limelight and will actively engage in co-branding and marketing campaigns with their partners. Others feel it diminishes their own brand equity and try not to lean too much into it. It’s hardly a surprise which side of that line Samsung is on. We got a chance to pick Qualcomm SVP and CMO Don McGuire’s brain on the company’s partnership with Samsung during Snapdragon Summit 2024, as we were curious to understand if enough will come back from that partnership as much as Qualcomm is putting into it.
“Sometimes you have to lean in a little bit before a partner will lean in with you, we tend to do that,” McGuire said, noting that relationships differ from customer to customer and that Qualcomm has done much more collaboration with Samsung at the regional level. “Our relationship is really driven, from a common market perspective, at a regional level.”
“All of the Samsung regions have been super cooperative,” McGuire added, noting that they’ve done a lot of things in the U.S. with Samsung’s North American marketing team, including co-branded advertising, such as Samsung putting the Snapdragon brand on their TV commercials , which they have run for the Galaxy S24 series and collaborate on market activations in the US.
“I wouldn’t say we haven’t been able to have successful co-marketing with Samsung like we have, it’s just been done differently by region, some of it has gone to TV like in the US, some has been away from home and digitally like in Latin America, so it just depends.”
On the other hand, Qualcomm has brought Samsung into its current partnerships with the likes of Manchester United. Similar cooperation between the two companies has occurred in other regions across the globe, including the key markets of India and Latin America. Qualcomm also includes Samsung in its messaging ecosystem as a brand in China, despite the absence of any real mobile market share for Samsung in the country.
Although the line between collaboration and competition can often be blurred between Qualcomm and Samsung, it is undeniable that the partnership between these two companies remains one of the most nuanced and strategically important. So while the details of their co-branding efforts vary from region to region, the overall synergy is a testament to how two industry titans can work together in a rapidly evolving landscape where collaboration has become as critical as competition.