Snapdragon X Failed: Qualcomm Sold 720,000 PCs in Q3, Around 0.8% Market Share

[AleksandarK]

The latest market data from Canalys reveals a complex landscape for AI-capable PCs, with Qualcomm's Snapdragon X platform showing modest growth in the age of AI PC. Despite sequential growth of 180% in Q3 2024, Snapdragon X-powered devices represent less than 1.5% of the Windows market, according to research. Qualcomm managed to sell around 720,000 Snapdragon X devices, which accounts for only 0.8% of all PCs sold in Q3 2024. Microsoft leads the adoption of the Snapdragon X, having integrated the platform across much of its Surface lineup. The broader AI-capable PC market, however, tells a different story. Shipments reached 13.3 million units in Q3 2024, claiming 20% of total PC shipments. Windows devices dominated this category for the first time, securing a 53% market share, driven by the Windows 11 refresh cycle and advances in processor technology.

Canalys also noted some significant challenges ahead. A recent survey indicates hesitancy among channel partners, with 31% planning to avoid Microsoft's Copilot+ PCs in 2025 and 34% expecting these devices to constitute less than 10% of their sales. These premium offerings, which require a minimum of 40 NPU TOPS, are constantly being evaluated over their value proposition. Major manufacturers are pursuing diverse strategies to differentiate themselves. HP focuses on ISV partnerships to enhance AI capabilities, while Lenovo develops proprietary tools like Creator Zone and Lenovo AI Now. Dell and Lenovo are integrating on-device AI within their broader service ecosystems. With Windows 10's end-of-support approaching, manufacturers face pressure to drive upgrades among users with aging devices. The industry's sequential growth of 49% in AI-capable PCs suggests increasing market appetite, though customer adoption of premium AI features remains selective.



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[bug]

Yet another news piece that completely misses the point. Snapdragon can do my laundry, clean my house and tutor the kids. Since most Windows software is proprietary, right down to the device drivers, as long as Windows doesn't offer a Rosetta equivalent, anything non-x86 will remain niche for another decade or two.
Also, which video card can I insert in my Snapdragon powered PC?

 

[kondamin]

Yet another news piece that completely misses the point. Snapdragon can do my laundry, clean my house and tutor the kids. Since most Windows software is proprietary, right down to the device drivers, as long as Windows doesn't offer a Rosetta equivalent, anything non-x86 will remain niche for another decade or two.
Also, which video card can I insert in my Snapdragon powered PC?

The same one you can put in your Apple silicon Mac

 

[mb194dc]

LLMs are the most over hyped technology in history, by far.

 

[Solidstate89]

Pretty happy with my snapdragon laptop. Picked up a lightly used surface laptop model to use around the house when I'm not on my desktop. Great battery life, and very snappy browsing capabilities. Leagues better than my very dated Surface Book 2. And I don't need to keep it plugged in to use it for more than an hour. Don't use any of that AI shit though. Pirated 11 Pro and disabled all that crap in local group policy.

 

[Ferrum Master]

I cannot rember with who, but somone had large beef with me saying immediately that they will flop so hard...

 

[AnarchoPrimitiv]

I cannot rember with who, but somone had large beef with me saying immediately that they will flop so hard...

Probably one of the many people around here who have been shouting "The End of x86 is nigh" for about 10 years now....I'm not discounting the advantages of ARM, but the way these arm evangelists make it seem, we'd have already been in an arm universe by now and x86 would have been prohibited.

 

[bug]

I cannot rember with who, but somone had large beef with me saying immediately that they will flop so hard...

It did not flop. It performed exactly as expected.

 

[wNotyarD]

It did not flop. It performed exactly as expected.

I'd say that for the asking price of SDX (I guess that 1.5% represents both Elite and Plus) devices, I'm actually surprised they broke 1% market share.

 

[Ferrum Master]

It did not flop. It performed exactly as expected.

If you look it from the perspective Apple looks at it... it certainly did in most areas.

Probably one of the many people around here who have been shouting "The End of x86 is nigh" for about 10 years now....I'm not discounting the advantages of ARM, but the way these arm evangelists make it seem, we'd have already been in an arm universe by now and x86 would have been prohibited.

Yeah, there were some. The thing that bothers me is the disconnection from reality for certain companies, especially Intel, QC does it too, the rules they force in mobile area, basically patent blackmail and power play does not apply to mainstream desktop. Play stupid games win stupid prizes.

 

[bug]

If you look it from the perspective Apple looks at it...

Why would I do that? Other than also being an ARM architecture, there's no similarity between Apple and Qualcomm's positions.

 

[Nostras]

Imo these things have the same problem as the Intel GPU's. You can't expect to sell a lot of devices if you try to price them as if they've been on the market for many years and are not "different". These things started at about 1000 euros and still aren't anywhere near 500 euros. To make me want to buy these things (and recommend them I guess) they need to be very affordable considering the downsides. They're just not right now.

 

[bug]

Imo these things have the same problem as the Intel GPU's. You can't expect to sell a lot of devices if you try to price them as if they've been on the market for many years and are not "different". These things started at about 1000 euros and still aren't anywhere near 500 euros. To make me want to buy these things (and recommend them I guess) they need to be very affordable considering the downsides. They're just not right now.

Economy of scale: they're expensive to make precisely because they won't build as many as Intel does. Probably selling them at a loss (or close to). But they need some hardware out there, if software is ever to ever be migrated over. It's about baby steps, not taking the market by storm (even if marketing materials would have you believe the latter).

 

[ScaLibBDP]

Just verified what is going on BestBuy website in Canada:

https://www.bestbuy.ca/en-ca/category/windows-laptops/36711?path=category%253AComputers%2B%2526%2BTablets%253Bcategory%253ALaptops%2B%2526%2BMacBooks%253Bcategory%253AWindows%2BLaptops%253Bprocessortype0enrchstring%253AQualcomm&sort=priceLowToHigh

On the 1st webpage there are 24 laptops for sale with Snapdragon X processor.

Statistics is as follows:

12 out of 24 are Refurbished - 50% ( !!! )
10 out of 24 are Open Box - 42% ( !!! )
2 out of 24 are New - 8%

 

[_roman_]

When I want an android smartphone or tablet i hardly see any device with a snapdragon.
Qualcom has to do much better. I have a very negative impression of my previous qualcom snapdragon android devices. Why should someone buy a product with basically no aftersale support or any specifications? Just because intel and amd is worse, qualcom and mediatek should not be the worst.

Give us the specifications and proper support and proper documentation for existing qualcom products. I talk about 15 years guaranteed after sale support for anyone with a qualcom product.

These things started at about 1000 euros

I bought for 110€ a refurbished lenovo laptop which included a windows 10 pro license with shipping and 12 months warranty. That device basically can do the same. One device is old with a proven architecture - the other device is new with barely any documentation and issues.

--
Apple is another topic. They have their own software and hardware combination which is limited. You pay for the apple ecosystem and quality. You can not compare that with the "windows" ecosystem + arm qualcom processor.

 

[Ferrum Master]

Just verified what is going on BestBuy website in Canada:

Access Denied on that link :/

I have never opened or serviced any as they are not sold here... I wonder what is going on with the RMA rates there... so many refurbs...

 

[Nostras]

Economy of scale: they're expensive to make precisely because they won't build as many as Intel does. Probably selling them at a loss (or close to). But they need some hardware out there, if software is ever to ever be migrated over. It's about baby steps, not taking the market by storm (even if marketing materials would have you believe the latter).

I'm arguing that Microsoft and Qualcomm should be selling these products at a major loss if they want to get market adoption.
Intel should've slashed their GPU prices by 20% across the board for the exact same reason. Although I can imagine they don't have the money to do so...
Neither had any intention on putting it out cheap. Somewhat understandable, that may result in the "brand" looking like a value non-premium product making it hard to move significant high-margin stock, but surely they know damn well that this is going to happen.

 

[bug]

I'm arguing that Microsoft and Qualcomm should be selling these products at a major loss if they want to get market adoption.

Yeah, well, we don't know their financials as well as they do. And let's not forget there are anti-dumping laws...

 

[R0H1T]

most over hyped technology in history, by far.

I mean there was this thing called BTC, so

And let's not forget there are anti-dumping laws

Which no one gives 2 effs about; same goes for monopolies!

 

[Nostras]

Yeah, well, we don't know their financials as well as they do. And let's not forget there are anti-dumping laws...

Don't act like this is not a thing. How many tales of startups are out there where they try to corner a market by selling products at a loss with loads and loads of VC capital?
I can assure you that Intel and Qualcomm would've been able to find a way to get these products out there affordable through means that would be legal.
I'm not asking them to sell the products going for 1000 euros for 500 euros no, I'm asking for them to make a less premium model (e.g. more plastic, smaller batteries, lower quality non-core components or just chips with slower or less cores) and sell them at a small loss. Let's not forget that these products most definitely have all the research and engineering calculated in the prices which inflate it to the current levels.
Doing all these things makes it easy to "technically" not sell them at a loss (we're just conveniently leaving out some less tangible costs here) just to get a much larger market share.

Qualcomm and Microsoft aren't stupid, this is a calculated gamble. I do think the amount of products is significantly less than expected, but I'm hard pressed to believe they didn't see it coming. They know and especially knew.

I also have some gripes with the title of this topic for the same reason.
It failed if you want to look at it strictly from a market adoption perspective, but I'd say it just did slightly poorer than expected looking at the effort Microsoft and Qualcomm put in. If they really tried they would've been able to make waves. Unless you're apple not addressing the sub 1k market is just suicide if you want to move significant stock.

 

[ScaLibBDP]

Access Denied on that link :/

I have never opened or serviced any as they are not sold here... I wonder what is going on with the RMA rates there... so many refurbs...

Anyway, just verify statistics, reviews, etc before making a decision if you really need it.

Start from

https://www.bestbuy.ca

Select 'Shop' -> Select 'Computers, Tablets, ...' -> Select 'Laptops & MacBooks' -> Select 'Windows Laptops' -> Press Page Down a couple of times -> Sort 'Price Low-High' -> Filter by Processor Brand 'Qualcomm'

I'm Not against of Qualcomm and 'm really glad to see more competition however 50% of Refurbished laptops is a Disturbing number.

 

[Ferrum Master]

Anyway, just verify statistics, reviews, etc before making a decision if you really need it.

Start from

https://www.bestbuy.ca

Select 'Shop' -> Select 'Computers, Tablets, ...' -> Select 'Laptops & MacBooks' -> Select 'Windows Laptops' -> Press Page Down a couple of times -> Sort 'Price Low-High' -> Filter by Processor Brand 'Qualcomm'

I'm Not against of Qualcomm and 'm really glad to see more competition however 50% of Refurbished laptops is a Disturbing number.

Nope. It seems they are hiding from EU... Any French here? We need to test your colonial rights here.

 

[tommo1982]

Nope. It seems they are hiding from EU... Any French here? We need to test your colonial rights here.

I'm from EU and could open the link.

 

[Ferrum Master]

I'm from EU and could open the link.

Can I pull out the racist card?

 

[Dr. Dro]

I've never even seen a Snapdragon X machine for sale here. It simply wasn't launched worldwide and advertised as it should have. Couple this poor launch, with poor market penetration, and high investment required on GPU driver, at this point I would actively avoid a Snapdragon X Elite system