Qualcomm has canceled its Snapdragon X Elite development kit, promising to refund those customers who pre-ordered it.
The dev kit was due to ship in June but pre-ordering has been available since May this year, various sources have reported.
The company did not believe that the product met its “usual standards of excellence”, according to an email sent by Arrow Electronics, an authorised distributor and partner of Qualcomm.
Qualcomm’s CEO, Jeff Geerling, shared the email: “At Qualcomm, we are dedicated to pioneering leading technology and delivering premium experiences to our valued customers.
“The launch of 30+ Snapdragon X-series powered PC’s is a testament to our ability to deliver leading technology and the PC industry’s desire to move to our next-generation technology.
“However, the Developer Kit product comprehensively has not met our usual standards of excellence and so we are reaching out to let you know that unfortunately we have made the decision to pause this product and the support of it, indefinitely.”
Snapdragon Dev Kit
The online developer community, XDA Developers, describes the Snapdragon X Elite as a ‘unique product’ due to it being the only Snapdragon X-powered mini PC and the fact that it has its own stock-keeping unit SKU of the Snapdragon X Elite.
The dev kit includes the Snapdragon X Elite X1E-00-1DE, which has 4.3GHz instead of 4.2GHz in the X1E-84-100.
This doesn’t mean that there won’t be any Snapdragon X-series mini PCs at all. On the contrary, XDA points to the fact that Amon has already said that there will be, such as at the computer expo Computex, he said that the chipset would be coming in a variety of forms.
The only thing is these mini PCs that do make it to market will not be produced by Qualcomm itself. Instead, Qualcomm appears to be opting for the devices to be made by original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) going forward.
At the time of the product’s initial launch at Microsoft Build back in May, Alex Katouzian, Group General Manager, Mobile, Compute & XR, Qualcomm Technologies, called its underlying technology ‘groundbreaking’:
“It’s a new era for the PC, and our collaboration with Microsoft combines the power of Snapdragon X Series with the power of Copilot+ to deliver groundbreaking AI capabilities that are redefining the personal computing experience – all with industry-leading performance and multi-day battery life.
“Today, our global OEM partners launched the first Copilot+ PCs exclusively powered by Snapdragon X Series in a variety of form factors and at multiple price points.
“We’re proud to enable this industry shift, which puts Windows PCs at the forefront of technology and allows users to push the boundaries of what’s possible across productivity, creativity, and entertainment.”
This month, Qualcomm has been showcasing its technologies at Augmented Enterprise Summit (AES) 2024, along with other XR companies like Meta, XREAL, HTC, VIVE, and RealWear.
Featured technologies at AES 2024 include digital twins, haptics, avatars, blockchain, wearables, VR headsets, AR smart glasses, and more.
