Oh, Snapdragon! Qualcomm warns the 810 has been dropped from a ‘flagship phone’

Earlier this month, there were rumours that Samsung had dropped Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 810 chip from its upcoming flagship phone because of issues relating to overheating. Now Qualcomm has confirmed that its chip has been dropped from a flagship phone. Coincidence?

The story goes that heat distribution issues with the 64-bit Snapdragon 810 led Samsung to abandon its plans to use the chip in the Galaxy S6. LG, the only manufacturer with a Snapdragon 810-powered 2015 flagship, rushed to offer assurances about the performance of the 810, explaining that the G Flex 2 emits less heat than other existing devices and that LG is happy with the chip.

Despite this, Qualcomm released its quarterly earnings report this afternoon, and announced that it is lowering its financial outlook for the second fiscal half of 2015 in its semiconductor business. Among the reasons for this new, lowered guidance are heightened competition in Asia, a shift in share among OEMs at the premium tier and “expectations that our Snapdragon 810 processor will not be in the upcoming design cycle of a large customer’s flagship device.” This is the only reference to the Snapdragon 810 that appears in the company’s Q1 FY2015 financial report. There’s obviously no confirmation as to the customer or the device in question, but it’s reignited the Samsung rumours that surfaced last week.

The 810-pound elephant in the room aside, Qualcomm announced higher than expected earnings per share at $1.34. The company reported $7.1 billion in revenue, up from $6.6 billion in the same period last year. Qualcomm’s operating and net income for the quarter were $2.1 billion and $2 billion, respectively.

[source]Qualcomm[/source]