Qualcomm ships record number of chipsets

Qualcomm saw another strong quarter of increased revenues and earnings driven by growing demand for its chipsets in both the low-end budget phones and high-end 3G handsets.

The vendor recorded $1.74 billion in revenues for its fiscal first quarter, ending Dec. 31. That represents a 25% increase year-over-year and was driven by record chipset shipments of 47 million units, 7 million more than it sold in the previous quarter and 8 million more than in fiscal year 2005’s first quarter.

The demand for those chipsets, however, wasn’t isolated to one particular segment or region, CEO Paul Jacobs said—it was divided among both the high-end 3G phones and budget devices for developing markets.

“In emerging wireless markets like China and India, demand for low-end CDMA phones is increasing,” Jacobs said in a statement. “In more established markets like the United States, South Korea, Japan and Europe, subscribers continue to migrate and upgrade feature-rich devices and services.”

Qualcomm expects those numbers to slide this quarter, though. It estimated it would ship 44 million to 46 million chipsets in the first three months of the year. Qualcomm’s silicon division accounted for $1.03 billion or 59% of its overall revenues, but despite its success, it wasn’t Qualcomm’s top performing division. Its intellectual property unit, Qualcomm Technology Licensing, raked in $564 million, a 41% increase year-over-year, as its CDMA technology continues to proliferate and to a lesser extent as W-CDMA technology on which Qualcomm holds patents proliferates in more UMTS handsets. WCDMA royalties account for 40% of Qualcomm’s overall licensing revenues, up from 32% last year.

As in previous quarters QTL is bringing in the lion’s share of Qualcomm’s profits, accounting for $517 million in earnings before taxes, compared to its chipset unit’s $300 million. Overall, Qualcomm recorded $620 million in net profits, up 21% year-over-year.