高通專利技術投資與策略布局

Abstract

高通(Qualcomm)為美國無晶圓廠半導體公司，1985年成立於美國加州聖地牙哥(San Diego, California)，現有超過30年歷史。近年全球前十大半導體公司中一直保持在名單內，更是全球前三大無晶圓廠的半導體大廠。主要產品為各式無線通訊晶片，「驍龍」系列更是市場高性能代表，在智慧型手機晶片供應中始終位於領先地位，在高階手機市場達到將近100%市佔。 1990年代，高通初次進入通訊市場，當時正逢2G通訊技術起步，將與原有大廠Motorola、Nokia等領導者競爭，高通決定不急著在當下與其一決勝負，而是按部就班，針對通訊技術「CDMA」布局，步步累積自身實力，並同時穩定其商業模式。其洞悉產業未來遲早會使CDMA成為主要技術，並在此階段緩緩擴張，並改變原有產業結構，打破原有廠商寡占的局勢。 2000年初期，全世界進入3G時代，CDMA成為通訊標準的基礎技術。高通憑藉著其累積擁有大量CDMA技術的專利，坐擁大量授權費用，在市場上具有巨大的影響力，一躍成為世界頂尖半導體公司。2010年後更受惠於Apple推出智慧型手機，改變整體手機產業，使手機成為人們生活不可或缺的物品，大量提高手機出貨量，使高通晶片的營收逐年顯著增加。在這個階段高通已經成為世界最具影響力的半導體公司之一。 4G時代，由於OFDM出現，取代原本CDMA的市場地位，高通相較過去影響力已下降許多，不再是統治的存在，各競爭者得到機會拉近與高通技術的差距，皆有與之競爭的機會與能力。在此階段高通更著重多產業方向發展，不僅止於研發手機通訊晶片，將其「通訊」的實力擴大應用，將終端產品放在車用、智慧城市等不同領域，不只局限於手機的通訊晶片，更多樣化的應用，憑藉著其耕耘多年在通訊相關技術及專利，輔以更多WiFi、藍芽技術產品的推廣，開始試著打造一個由手機出發，萬物相連的生態系統，在下一個5G世代潛在發展的商業模式布局。 「專利」與「技術」為高通兩大發展核心，使其在市場上戰勝競爭者，收取高額的利潤。其策略大多圍繞著此兩項核心能力做布局，本研究透過了解高通發展的過程，將歸納出高通的發展策略四階段為架構，應用至高通在對應商業系統發展理論的四階段，個別分析每段時期中高通如何具體實施與應用策略，證實歸納四項策略的成功模式，並剖析其過程中核心資源與能力，如何應用在未來發展中持續鞏固其成功模式。

Qualcomm is a fabless semiconductor company in the United States. It was established in San Diego, California in 1985, and has a history of more than 30 years. In recent years, Qualcomm have been kept on the list of the world’s top ten semiconductor companies, and it is also the world’s top three fabless semiconductor manufacturers. The main products are all kinds of wireless communication chips. The star product - “Snapdragon” series is a representative of high performance in the market. It has always been in the leading position in the supply of smart phone chips, reaching nearly 100% of the market in the high-end mobile phone market. In the 1990s, Qualcomm entered the communications market for the first time. At that time, when 2G communications technology started, it would compete with the large leaders such as Motorola and Nokia. Qualcomm decided not to rush to win against them in the present moment, but to follow the step-by-step approach to develop communications technology. Qualcomm decided to invest significant amount of resources in 'CDMA' layout to accumulate its own strength, and at the same time constructed its own business model. They firmly believed that CDMA layout technology will sooner or later be the main trend, and change the original industrial structure, breaking the oligopoly of the original manufacturers. In the early 2000s, the world entered the 3G era, and CDMA became the basic technology of communication standards. With its accumulated patents for CDMA technology, Qualcomm has a large amount of licensing fees, and accordingly laid a huge influence in the market. Since that time, Qualcomm had become the world's top semiconductor company. At 2010, it has benefited from Apple’s launch of smart phones, which had changed the overall mobile phone industry and made mobile phones an indispensable item in people’s lives, greatly increased mobile phone shipments, and significantly increased the revenue of Qualcomm chips year by year. Qualcomm had been one of the most influential companies in the world. In the 4G era, the emergence of OFDM replaced the original market position of CDMA. Qualcomm's influence had dropped a lot compared to the past, and it was no longer at a dominant position in the market. Competitors had the opportunity to narrow down the gap with Qualcomm's technology. At this stage, Qualcomm was more focused on the development into multiple industries. Not only relying on mobile phone communication chips, Qualcomm actively availed its communication strength in expanding their business into different industries of application. They placed terminal products in a wide variety of field such as automotive and smart cities, not just limited to mobile phone communication chips. And by the promotion of more WiFi and Bluetooth technology products, Qualcomm began to build an ecosystem that started from mobile phones and connected everything. They will again played an important role in the next 5G generation. 'Patent' and 'technology' are Qualcomm's two major development cores. These enable Qualcomm to outperform competitors in the market and they can collect high profits. Most of their strategies revolve around these two core capabilities. This study will summarize the four steps of Qualcomm’s development strategy as an architecture by understanding Qualcomm’s development process, and apply it to the four stages of Qualcomm’s corresponding business system development theory. The study will also clarify how Qualcomm specifically implemented and applied strategies during every period. Next, the study will confirm the model of the four strategies, analyzing the core resources and capabilities in the process. Finally, I will illustrate how to apply the model to continue to consolidate its success in future development.