Qualcomm fires back at Intel's claims of high laptop return rates — the company says Snapdragon X PCs are within 'industry norm' for returns

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"Our devices continue to have greater than 4+ stars across consumer reviews and our products have received numerous accolades across the industry."

Snapdragon X Elite
(Image credit: Qualcomm)

Late on Friday, Qualcomm reacted to a claim by an interim Intel co-CEO that the return rates of Qualcomm Snapdragon X-based PCs were high as customers were unsatisfied with their systems due to software incompatibilities. Qualcomm (via CRN) denied the claim and said that return rates of Snapdragon X-powered computers are within industry norms, saying customers are happy with their PCs.

"Our device return rates are within industry norm," a Qualcomm representative said to CRN. "Our devices continue to have greater than 4+ stars across consumer reviews and our products have received numerous accolades across the industry."

Earlier this week, Michelle Johnston Holthaus, Intel's interim co-CEO, said, citing her conversations with undisclosed retailers, that return rates of Qualcomm Snapdragon X-based systems were high due to software incompatibilities.

"I mean, if you look at the return rate for Arm PCs, you go talk to any retailer, their number one concern is 'I get a large percentage of these back,' because you go to set them up and the things that we just expect do not work, right," said Michelle Johnston Holthaus at the Barclays 22nd Annual Global Technology Conference.

A quick check at Amazon proves that Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite-based systems usually have four or more stars. However, one can only wonder whether customers dissatisfied with a system due to software incompatibilities or crashes will waste more time rating a PC that did not work for them. Nonetheless, customers who reviewed the Arm-powered laptops seemed happy with them.

However, the adoption of these notebooks is slow. In the third quarter, PCs powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite processors accounted for just 0.8% of the market. In general, Arm-based client PCs hold approximately 10% of the market share, with the majority being Apple computers running on M-series processors.

Qualcomm's chief executive predicted that Arm-based CPUs would power half of all Windows PCs within five years. In a Qualcomm statement published by CRN on Friday, the company was a bit less optimistic (or perhaps more realistic). It is projected that within the next five years, 30% to 50% of laptops will transition from x86 to alternative platforms like Arm.

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Anton Shilov
Anton Shilov
Contributing Writer

Anton Shilov is a contributing writer at Tom’s Hardware. Over the past couple of decades, he has covered everything from CPUs and GPUs to supercomputers and from modern process technologies and latest fab tools to high-tech industry trends.

24 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Amdlova
    First adopters of this product will grab on the hand of x86 God or will follow the path of evil with apple products. Windows with arm is the pure nightmare.
    Reply
  • dimar
    I predict that Qualcomm products will be abandoned by Microsoft in about 3 years.
    Reply
  • IBM296
    Every reviewer has praised the hardware of the Snapdragon X Elite laptops (from the battery life to thermals, to camera performance compared to X86 laptops ).

    Software compatibility is what's stopping people from jumping to Arm on Windows. In the next year or so when Microsoft and Qualcomm have ironed out software issues and Nvidia also enters the Arm race, a lot more people are going to switch to Arm.

    RIP X86
    Reply
  • Pierce2623
    It’s hilarious hearing Qualcomm doing this posturing when ARM is poised to rug pull Qualcomm’s entire business.
    Reply
  • Notton
    I assume they are playing with the numbers and split the returns from dissatisfied with defective.
    So defect rate is industry norm, but dissatisfied.

    Also, when you look at user reviews, they are next to non-existent with snapdragon laptops. Not a 1, not a 5, but a unrated.
    Reply
  • jheithaus
    People don’t want the devices. It’s classic MSFT treating their customers like crap. They place snapdragon front and center at Best Buy with no warnings. I suspect INTC speaks the truth. Half of the consumers have no idea what they bought and are upset when their grandson complains the laptop plays zero games. Lunar lake is just as efficient with the software support.
    Reply
  • ekio
    Amdlova said:
    First adopters of this product will grab on the hand of x86 God or will follow the path of evil with apple products. Windows with arm is the pure nightmare.
    Ridiculous.

    Saying x86 is better than arm is like saying CRT is better than LCD.

    The only reason why x86 is more convenient in some cases is because it’s old and well established. Otherwise ARM tech is better on every aspect (tech quality, license, evolution…)
    Reply
  • bit_user
    dimar said:
    I predict that Qualcomm products will be abandoned by Microsoft in about 3 years.
    That seems unrealistic, to me. Microsoft has been partnering very closely with Qualcomm, on numerous products, for the better part of a decade. Microsoft is also using ARM in their cloud. I really don't see them turning back.

    With fewer and fewer new apps being natively-compiled, the CPU ISA will only become less of an issue, not more of one. However, x86 will have a long tail and MS will have to keep improving its x86 emulation.
    Reply
  • bit_user
    The article said:
    one can only wonder whether customers dissatisfied with a system due to software incompatibilities or crashes will waste more time rating a PC that did not work for them.
    Are you kidding? Frustrated consumers are the most likely to leave a scathing review! The problem companies usually have is that contented customers are less likely to bother leaving reviews.

    Anyway, if Intel keeps talking trash about Snapdragon X PCs, it will lower expectations and paradoxically result in even more pleasantly-surprised consumers who will leave good reviews. So, I'm not sure that spreading FUD is exactly a brilliant strategy.
    Reply
  • bit_user
    Pierce2623 said:
    It’s hilarious hearing Qualcomm doing this posturing when ARM is poised to rug pull Qualcomm’s entire business.
    Qualcomm has the best lawyers and ARM's case isn't exactly bulletproof. The fact is that Qualcomm currently has no short-term choice but to forge ahead with their ARM-based products, so they need to throw all their weight behind them.

    Long term, you're right. They've been saying things about RISC-V and working on using it in niche products for years. However, the wise sales person sells what they have today. Pitching what you'll replace it with would only cause market confusion and result in more people sitting on the sidelines.
    Reply