Qualcomm's next-generation application processor (AP), the Snapdragon 820, is expected to outsource to Samsung Electronics using a 14nm node, which the Korea-based foundry house has demonstrated as a proven process as showcased by the performance and power consumption of its14nm EXynos 7420 CPU developed in house, according to Digitimes Research.

Since Samsung has also been aggressively striving for orders with competitive pricing, other players such as Nvidia, AMD and MediaTek are believed to have a high chance of shifting part of their orders to Samsung, which in turn could affect the global mobile AP market in 2015 and 2016, Digitimes Research commented.

Qualcomm was forced to accelerate the roadmap of its mobile AP following a mishap of the Snapdragon 810 and is also being pushed to fabricate its Snapdragon 820 via Samsung's 14nm process as the development of a similar advanced 16nm process by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacture Company (TSMC) is currently lagging Samsung's 14nm node by about one quarter, Digitimes Research believes.

With Samsung shifting to use in-house developed APs for its high-end models such as the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy Note 5 instead of Qualcomm's APs, Qualcomm is expected to see its high-end AP shipments halve to 100 million units in 2015. As a result, the US-based chip supplier may use the Snapdragon 820 orders as a bargain chip persuading Samsung to purchase more of its high-end Snapdragon chips.

To ensure that it will have sufficient foundry capacity, Qualcomm is likely to outsource up to 50% or even higher of the Snapdragon 820 chips to Samsung in 2016, attracting other chip suppliers to follow suit.