As Samsung Electronics’ application processor (AP) Exynos is losing ground in the mobile market, the company may develop it into a brand specialized for automotive electronics and wearable devices.
Samsung’s flagship smartphone Galaxy S23 series, scheduled to be released early next year, will not be loaded with the Exynos. Instead, Qualcomm’s new AP, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, is highly likely to be loaded into all models of the Galaxy S23 series.
The Exynos 2200 released earlier this year was produced using a 4-nm process. But yield and heat generation issues spoiled the latest AP. Samsung used the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, which is also produced using the same 4-nm process, for the Galaxy S22 series released in overseas markets other than Europe.
Given this situation, some analysts suggest that Samsung may completely revise its Exynos strategy. They say that Samsung may reduce the Exynos’ proportion in the mobile device market, which is dominated by APs from Qualcomm, Apple and MediaTek, and focus on the automotive electronics and wearable device sectors where Exynos produces some results. For the mobile market, they say, Samsung may take time to develop a chip tailored to the Galaxy ecosystem.
The automotive electronics sector is one of the fields where the utilization of the Exynos can be maximized. Samsung and Harman are working hard to develop a digital cockpit system and synergies can be increased when they use a homegrown AP for it. A digital cockpit is composed of digital electronic devices that control driver convenience functions. Samsung Electronics’ ICT technology and Harman’s automotive electronics technology can be integrated and used for digital cockpits.
Samsung Electronics has already supplied the Exynos Auto V7, an infotainment processor, for Volkswagen’s ICAS 3.1 Infotainment System produced by the LG Electronics VS Division. The Exynos Auto V7 is equipped with a neural network processing unit for artificial intelligence calculation and provides virtual assistant service, voice, face, and motion recognition functions. Moreover, the chip has defective pixel and distortion correction technology and image compression technology and three Hi-Fi 4 audio processors. It provides an infotainment environment suitable for enjoying music, movies and games in a car.
