Qualcomm kills its copy of Apple’s satellite SOS after ten months

Enlarge (credit: Qualcomm)

One of the iPhone 14’s major new features was “Emergency SOS via satellite.” During normal usage, smartphones struggle to connect to something as far away as a satellite, but it’s possible to send out tiny bits of data under ideal conditions with the help of an aiming app. Apple turned this into a way to send a message to emergency services even when you’re off the grid, and the Android ecosystem immediately set about copying the feature. Qualcomm’s “Snapdragon Satellite” was announced in January 2023, and now, ten months later and with zero customers, the plan is dead.

Qualcomm’s satellite partner for the project, Iridium, announced the dissolution of the partnership in a press release, though Qualcomm says it still wants to work with Iridium for future projects. Iridium wrote:

Iridium previously announced that it entered into agreements with Qualcomm to enable satellite messaging and emergency services in smartphones powered by Snapdragon Mobile Platforms using Iridium’s satellite network. The companies successfully developed and demonstrated the technology; however, notwithstanding this technical success, smartphone manufacturers have not included the technology in their devices. Due to this, on November 3, 2023, Qualcomm notified Iridium that it has elected to terminate the agreements, effective December 3, 2023.

Essentially, the project is dying because Qualcomm couldn’t get a single Android manufacturer to add satellite messaging to a phone. Qualcomm’s satellite solution didn’t require much in the way of new hardware, so the rejection was apparently due to Qualcomm’s design of the feature and (presumably) any tack-on fees it was adding to the bill of materials. In a statement given to CNBC, Qualcomm says smartphone makers “indicated a preference towards standards-based solutions” for satellite-to-phone connectivity, a plan the company now wants to pivot to.