Qualcomm just released its first-quarter financial results for fiscal year 2025, covering the period from October to December 2024, and it has made some bold claims to investors. According to analyst Sravan Kundojjala, the company said that 10% of Windows PC sales in the U.S., worth $800 and above, are powered by Snapdragon X chips. This is quite an assertion, especially as it only captured 0.8% percent of the market in the third quarter of 2024, having only sold 720,000 units.
- Auto revenue up 61% y/y to $961M; 6 quarters of q/q growth- On track for $4B+ revenue target for FY26- IoT revenue up 36% y/y to $1.5B; 3 quarters of q/q growth- 80 PC designs (planned/launched) for ’25; 100+ designs in ‘26- Claims 10% Windows PC retail share in the US…February 6, 2025
This headline PC shipments figure rings somewhat true, especially with the qualifiers included in the statement. The Windows PC retail market is tied to consumer purchases only, so Qualcomm probably didn’t consider institutional purchases, like those coming from the government and other private businesses. Aside from that, it also only counted PCs worth $800 or more, which is slightly above the average laptop selling price of $750 in 2024.
Whatever the case, we’re going to see more Snapdragon laptops and PCs this coming year. Qualcomm has already announced an 8-core Snapdragon X chip that will bring down prices to around $600, making its devices more accessible for buyers. We’ve also seen mini-PCs with these chips coming to market a few months after the company abruptly canceled its $899 dev kit. These new devices are part of the 80 or so models planned to arrive (or already launched) in 2025, with a further 100+ more coming next year.
Windows on Arm PCs still have a long way to go to reach market share parity with x86_64 devices, especially as they continue to have some compatibility issues with legacy software and gaming. However, they also come with several advantages, especially in the efficiency department. We’ve even seen Snapdragon X Elite laptops lasting more than 15 hours of real-world use on a single charge, finally allowing Windows devices to somewhat catch up with the battery life you can find on Apple's MacBooks.
With continued development, we might eventually see a time when Windows devices are evenly split between Arm and x86 processors. But it will likely take time, and we can only wait and see if the Qualcomm CEO’s prediction that the Snapdragon X chips will take 50% of the Windows PC market by 2029 will come true.
