Qualcomm launches paid asset tracking cloud software service Qualcomm Aware

Qualcomm announced Tuesday that it is launching a paid cloud software service to help companies using its chips keep track of goods as they move through the supply chain.

Based in San Diego, California, the company is the world’s largest supplier of crisps This help smart phone connect to mobile data networks. But Qualcomm has used its wireless communications specialty to break into other markets that require devices to communicate with the Internet, such as B. Cars and factories.

Qualcomm Aware, as the new service is called, works with Qualcomm chips that go into tracking devices for shipping containers, pallets, packages and other parts of the supply chain to help companies track where their goods and materials are condition.

Most of these trackers are made by third parties, but Qualcomm makes some of their own devices, e.g. B. a tilt sensor that can be attached to power poles to report if they have fallen during storms.

Qualcomm has already shipped hundreds of millions of the chips involved, which typically cost less than $10 a piece (nearly Rs. 830), Jeff Torrance, senior vice president and general manager of Qualcomm’s Smart Connected Systems business, said in an interview with Reuters.

The software service, announced on Tuesday, aims to allow Qualcomm customers to program their chips from a central location, with updates being sent to the chips over the air.

The service also aims to make better use of the chips’ data.

Torrance said Qualcomm’s software will integrate with other cloud-based such as Microsoft‘s Dynamics 365 service that businesses use to keep track of their inventory and supplies.

Companies could use the two systems to create things like virtual dashboards that show where all of a company’s inventory is at any given point in time.

Qualcomm hasn’t publicly announced pricing for the new service, but it represents an attempt to make more money from its chips by charging when the chip is sold, then for cloud-based services that use the chip thereafter.

“We believe there is value in the chip and the cloud service,” Torrance told Reuters.

© Thomson Reuters 2023