NFC Times Exclusive Insight – If a planned acquisition by Qualcomm of NXP Semiconductors, as reported, were to go through, it would not affect supplies of NFC chips to smartphone makers using other processor chips, said an expert.
Qualcomm already has a tight relationship with NXP to use the latter’s NFC technology for its reference designs, having announced last year it was integrating NXP’s NFC chips with its processors and abandoning its own in-house NFC technology.
The Wall Street Journal Thursday reported the talks between Qualcomm, the largest supplier of processor chips for smartphones globally, and NXP, in what sources predict would be a $30 billion-plus deal. If that deal gets consummated, Qualcomm would also become the No. 1 supplier of chips for automobiles, a major supplier to the budding Internet of Things market and enter a number of markets outside of the mobile industry.