Qualcomm launches a tech platform focused on wireless audio streaming

Mobile chip giant Qualcomm reckons it has identified some issues around wireless audio streaming, so has made a new portfolio of products to resolve them.

The result is Qualcomm Snapdragon Sound, which the company seems to be hoping will become a kind of kite mark for high quality wireless sound. The focus is on streaming, specifically the elimination of latency and lag, which we’re told is a problem. That plays into Qualcomm’s home turf of modems and wireless connectivity in general, so you can see why the company might think it has something to offer in this area.

“The human ear is highly sensitive to glitches, latencies and other challenges which commonly occur when streaming music, video conferencing, or gaming over wireless connections,” said James Chapman, Qualcomm GM of Voice, Music and Wearables. “By focusing end-to-end, we are looking to deliver innovations to solve common consumer pain-points across virtually all audio interaction points.”

“Qualcomm Technologies is uniquely positioned to provide tremendous value to customers with Snapdragon Sound and help them quickly commercialize products differentiated by great sound quality. Our system-level approach aggregates multiple technologies and the latest products from across our mobile and audio platform portfolios to achieve our vision of delivering high-resolution, wired quality audio, wirelessly.”

This is a new platform, so will only feature in new products, probably starting later this year. The extent to which there really are all these consumer pain-points remains to be seen, but if the price is right smartphone and headphone OEMs will surely be tempted to add some audio go-faster stripes to their products. And with Spotify recently announcing a premium HiFi service, the timing is pretty good too.