Qualcomm Q4 Profits Drops 90%, Loser In Legal Battle With Apple

Qualcomm has done a lot of things to squeeze Apple into giving in to its demands, from asking the Federal Trade Commission to ban all sales of iPhones in the U.S. to making the Chinese market inhospitable for the Cupertino firm. Despite its efforts, it would seem that the chip maker is coming out as the loser in this battle, with its Q4 earnings report revealing a 90 percent drop in profits.

It’s worth noting that Qualcomm’s performance is actually better than Wall Street’s predictions, and the steep drop pertains to the profits, not the revenue. The chip maker only actually saw a 4.5 percent drop in earnings, 9To5Mac reports. Still, these results are a reflection of the toll that the legal battle between Qualcomm and Apple is taking.

Qualcomm’s own press release admits that its kerfuffle with its former partner and other companies is what caused the drop in profit. For now, the company’s stock prices seem to be holding steady, but it did see a steep drop earlier in the week and has yet to recover from it.

The drop was due to reports of Apple considering using components from Intel and MediaTek, thus dropping Qualcomm from the equation entirely. In a Reuters reports, sources confirm that this is the case and that the devices that will not feature any of Qualcomm’s components will be released as early as 2018.

While Qualcomm certainly has the upper hand when it comes to manufacturing and providing most of the materials used by iPhones to connect to wireless networks, things are changing. Intel, for example, is ramping up its own manufacturing ambitions, acquiring new firms to help make it an even bigger part of Apple’s business. The Cupertino firm might not completely drop Qualcomm for now, but it’s certainly a possibility.