As we all know, Qualcomm is a major holder of communication patents. Starting from 2G, it has filed a large number of patents, especially CDMA patents, of which Qualcomm accounts for 90%. Many subsequent 3G, 4G, and 5G technologies are developed from CDMA.

It can be said that no matter if you use an Apple, Huawei, Xiaomi... or any other brand of mobile phone, you cannot escape Qualcomm's scythe in this lifetime, because Qualcomm's patents must be used, unless you still use something like a PHS.

Recently, TECNO, a former feature phone giant, has also been officially sued by Qualcomm.

TECNO has three major mobile phone brands: TECNO, itel, and Infinix. According to Qualcomm, TECNO's mobile phones infringe on four of its non-standard essential patents. Qualcomm claims that TECNO and Qualcomm have only reached patent license agreements for a portion of products, but the vast majority of products have not been licensed.

So Qualcomm hopes that TECNO will not infringe on its rights. In fact, it's straightforward that TECNO pays too little in patent fees, and you need to pay more.

Why target TECNO? The reason is that TECNO is currently the world's fifth-largest smartphone vendor. If we count feature phones, it should be the third-largest vendor globally.

Although TECNO's mobile phones are not expensive, with an average price of just over 300 yuan in 2023, it sold nearly 200 million mobile phones last year, generating revenue of 62.3 billion yuan. Even if Qualcomm charges 3% of the sales price, it can still collect nearly 2 billion yuan, which is a significant amount of revenue.

Therefore, Qualcomm certainly does not want to let TECNO off the hook, as no one can escape Qualcomm's patents, and TECNO is no exception.

In Qualcomm's business, there are two main operations. One is the QCT business, which sells chips, primarily Snapdragon chips and mobile phone baseband chips. The other is the QTL business, which collects patent fees from various mobile phone manufacturers.

As mentioned earlier, Qualcomm has applied for many communication patents since 2G, especially CDMA and WCDMA technologies in the 3G era, which are its foundation. After all, later 4G LTE technology also uses CDMA technology.

Although Qualcomm has fewer patents in 5G than Huawei, on the whole, Qualcomm holds the most standard core patents in the entire field of communication technology, so Qualcomm charges based on the proportion of mobile phone sales prices...

However, the good news is that with the advancement of 5G and 6G technologies, Qualcomm's monopoly position has ceased to exist. As shown in the 5G patent chart above, Qualcomm ranks quite low. At the same time, previous 3G and 4G technologies will gradually be phased out over time, and some of Qualcomm's patents may also gradually expire.

So perhaps in a few years, Qualcomm's patent fees may be nearing their end, which is probably the most anticipated event for all smartphone manufacturers.

However, for the time being, Qualcomm will certainly take advantage of the opportunity to collect as much as possible. As for domestic smartphone manufacturers, including Apple and Samsung, they still have to pay Qualcomm, and TECNO is no exception, unable to escape.