Qualcomm Invests in Opticals – Analyst Blog

Qualcomm Ventures Europe, a part of Qualcomm Inc. (QCOM), is investing in a Dutch company Anteryon that makes optical components including lenses for phone cameras. Funds will be used to invest in Anteryon’s WaferOptics optical module production technology and an expansion of its Asia production facility.

 

Anteryon is a world leader in wafer-based miniature optical module production for mobile phone cameras and laser projection. The company is a leading player in the rapidly growing global camera phone market worth more than 1 billion units. The WaferOptics technology significantly reduces the cost of mobile cameras, thereby making the handsets highly competitive.

 

Qualcomm has recently announced that it will start shipping the dual-core version of its Snapdragon processor, which will support 1080p video encoding and decoding. Qualcomm is banking on Anteryon’s technology for achieving this capability.

 

Qualcomm’s dual-core Snapdragon processor will compete head-to-head with Intel Corp. (INTC), Broadcom Corp. (BRCM) and Texas Instruments Inc. (TXN). Qualcomm’s current single-core version of the chip is popular with other device manufacturers and is found in a number of mobile devices, including Google Inc’s (GOOG) Nexus One and Dell Inc’s (DELL) Streak.

 

Qualcomm Ventures was formed in November 2000 with an initial investment of $500 million. It makes strategic investments in companies focusing on wireless communication technologies and products serving consumers, enterprises and vertical markets worldwide to promote the adoption of 3G CDMA and wireless Internet markets worldwide.