GreenBkk Tech | Qualcomm sees double-digit growth for next 5 years

Qualcomm sees double-digit growth for next 5 years

Credit: Reuters (www.reuters.com)

(Reuters) - Qualcomm Inc expects to boost its revenue and earnings per share by at least 10 percent a year over the next five years due to increasing demand for its chips in smartphones and other gadgets like tablet computers.

"We're absolutely targeting double-digit revenue and EPS growth over the next five years," Chief Executive Paul Jacobs told the audience at the company's investor meeting on Wednesday.

Shares of Qualcomm were up 3.8 percent to $48.15 in noon trading on Nasdaq after Jacobs spoke.

BMO Capital Markets analyst Tim Long said in a research note that Qualcomm's guidance was "very achievable."

Earlier this month Qualcomm reported quarterly earnings per share of 68 cents per share, excluding items such as its investment arm, on revenue that rose 10 percent to $2.95 billion.

Jacobs cited estimates that smartphones, which require more expensive wireless chips, would rise from 15 percent of the phone market in 2009 to 45 percent in 2014, when he expects 900 million smartphones to be shipped.

Between 2011 and 2014 Jacobs expects 2.5 billion smartphones to be shipped.

Jacobs also said that in the first half of 2011, the company expects to see commercial launches of e-readers that use Qualcomm's Mirador display technology, a new business for the San Diego, California-based company.

Jacobs said the Mirador technology would be key to reducing battery drain in smartphones, which have increasingly high power requirements as consumers use them for services such as Web surfing as well as talking.

"Display is increasingly a dominant factor in the amount of power that's being used by your device," Jacobs said. "The batteries are not keeping up with the demand."

(Reporting by Sinead Carew; editing by Derek Caney and Tim Dobbyn)

Credit: Reuters (www.reuters.com)