

Qualcomm (QCOM-Nasdaq)
Written by CEO & CIO, Bruce Murray, CFA.
Qualcomm was founded in the mid-1980s and emerged as the leading cellphone technology company with its branded “Snapdragon” line of communication chips in the 1990s. Its CDMA (code-division-multiple-access) technology, patented in 1986, became the standard for leading cellphone networks. Cell phone manufacturers such as Apple and Samsung became Qualcomm’s major customers. Ericsson’s competing TDMA (time-division-multiple access) technology fell by the wayside as it could not match CDMA’s network capacity. CDMA can carry a massive volume of wireless data and differentiate by assigning a code to each call or data user, simultaneously allowing large numbers of network users. TDMA assigns network time to each user thus restricting volumes. Qualcomm’s fortunes moved forward with each leap (generation) of cellphone technology. The rally in the stock price from 2020 to 2022, as seen in Figure 1, was reflective of the rollout of 5G technology, which you likely have in your cellphone if it was purchased in 2020 or later. Read