Qualcomm has announced the introduction of its cost-effective wireless earbud SoC – the QCC3026. This chipset is intended for device manufacturers targeting customers with low and mid-tier handsets. This SoC is intended to help manufacturers bundle wireless earbuds with their budget to mid-tier phones. With more and more manufacturers looking to remove the 3.5mm headphones jack, it will be nice to see them bundle wireless earbuds with the smartphone.
“Consumers are eager for earbuds they can use all day, when they are at home, in the office or out and about without constantly needing to recharge. This latest addition to our portfolio is a very robust and cost-effective true wireless solution that is optimized for both superior sound quality and pricing value, and will allow our customers to put this exciting technology in the reach of millions of more buyers,” said Anthony Murray, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Voice & Music, Qualcomm Technologies International. “We were early leaders in the development of true wireless technology and we continue to drive exciting innovation across our audio portfolio that meets the needs of this rapidly evolving and growing segment. Putting so much technology into such a small form factor is a big technology challenge and with this differentiated new offering we are helping even non-traditional Bluetooth wireless headphone customers, like mobile phone manufacturers, to rapidly add valued accessories to their product line ups,” he added.
OPPO, has announced their first wireless stereo earbuds based on the Qualcomm QCC3026 SoC called the O-Free. The company has also announced that the earbuds will be included in the box with the OPPO Find X. The earbuds are priced at 699 yuan which translates to about Rs 7,237 approx. They will go on sale in August
The SoC will support technologies including Bluetooth v5.0, Qualcomm Broadcast, TrueWireless Stereo, aptX and cVc technologies. It will be intersting to see how manufactures exploit the potential of the QCC3026 since bluetooth 5.0 isn't there in a lot of budget phones or budget bluetooth headsets, but it is definitely the way forward.
At CES 2018, Qualcomm unveiled the QCC5100 SoC. The SoC claimed to improve processing power, reception and battery life of wireless earbuds.