Qualcomm Says Next Gen Bluetooth Chip Will See Smaller More Reliable Smarter Wireless Headphones

Qualcomm has said that its latest Bluetooth chip will allow future wireless in-ear headphones to become smaller, more reliable and smarter.

Reduced power consumption could allow headphones to give almost three times the battery-life of existing models – or, as seems more likely, allow manufacturers to maintain current playback times while shrinking the size of devices like AirPods …

Qualcomm told Gizmodo that reliability has also been improved.

The Qcc5100 additionally doubles the processing power of existing chips, allowing more intelligence – like improved noise-cancellation and automatically reducing the volume if it hears a PA announcement being made.

Qualcomm says that it’s working with a number of major manufacturers, but there’s a big question mark over whether Apple will be one of them. Given Apple’s legal dispute with the chipmaker, objecting to being forced to pay twice – being charged royalties on patents while also buying radio chips from the company – it is believed to be actively working on switching away from Qualcomm modems.