Sorry for not being clear. I meant that radios matter far more to carriers & OEMs, the people who are actually Qualcomm's customers.
For carriers this lets them get out that first 5G phone and all that nonsense. For OEMs this drastically reduces engineering complexity (and therefore improves margins) by avoiding a separate radio chip.
Ah that makes sense. I think I'm on a hairpin trigger about people saying Qualcomm chips are fast enough for consumers. Mostly because I'm frustrated and upset by their chips every single day. But I'm not a Qualcomm customer, just a lowly user.
I will admit it's super frustrating to read a review of a flagship Android phone. Even from reputable places like Anandtech. They'll rave about the latest Snapdragon and how it'a a 10-20% improvement year over year. And yet it's 40% slower than last year's iPhone. I understand Android users don't have a choice. We can't get the A15. But journalists should be telling the world the truth over and over in every flagship Android review. "Your $1500 Galaxy S21 ultra has a worse SoC than a 3 year old iphone."
I've been an Android user since the original G1, and every year I wonder why I don't switch to an iphone. Maybe this year.
For carriers this lets them get out that first 5G phone and all that nonsense. For OEMs this drastically reduces engineering complexity (and therefore improves margins) by avoiding a separate radio chip.