Qualcomm: LTE devices, tablets ramping for CES 2011

Qualcomm executives said the company is set to ride a 4G wave as Long-Term Evolution (LTE) devices launch in January and the company embeds its chips into multiple tablets.

Those high-level takeaways came on Qualcomm's fourth quarter earnings conference call. Qualcomm handily topped estimates on Wednesday. Qualcomm reported net income of $1.1 billion on revenue of $2.95 billion.

Among the key points:

• Qualcomm is actively engaged in at least 10 tablet development efforts.
• January will open the window for LTE devices.
• Qualcomm's multimode 3G/LTE chips won't require the company to cut new deals with device makers.
• Snapdragon sales are looking positive as adoption in multiple devices picks up.

Qualcomm president Steve Mollenkopf foreshadowed a big 4G CES:

You'll see first products launch on our chipset here in this quarter that we're in today. I think you'll see a big push on more handset and other connected products, probably around the timing of CES, and those will start to come in at the high end of the portfolio next year and certainly build.

Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs also echoed those comments.

We're also seeing strong momentum behind LTE led by Verizon's expected launch this quarter. Multimode capabilities are essential for devices on these networks, and we're very well positioned to capitalize on these dynamics by leveraging our time to market advantages and industry leading modem solutions.

And on the tablet front. Mollenkopf said Qualcomm and its chips are poised to gain in tablets.

In terms of dual core, we have today over ten different companies designing tablets on our dual core solutions, so we feel very good about where they're going.

The tablet space, at this point, it's difficult to say how big that space is going to be. I've seen a lot of different estimates on that, and it will be interesting to see what happens. As we probably talked before, we see that in the developing world being one type of market in the -- developed world, you see one type of market. In the developing world, I think will you tend to see a number of different types of devices go in there, mainly because there is no laptop market for them to have to displace. We've already seen that with some of our product today.