Qualcomm won’t be announcing Windows gaming handhelds at GDC after all

“The Snapdragon The edge via Qualcomm spokesperson Cassandra Garcia-Bacha.

Qualcomm hasn’t explained why plans changed, but it’s not hard to imagine that RAMageddon could have something to do with it. During Qualcomm’s February earnings conference call, Chairman and CEO Cristiano Amon attributed a sharp decline in its chip business “100%” to the memory shortage, telling investors that the AI ​​industry’s appetite for components would likely define the entire scale of the phone industry throughout the year.

On that same call, Akash Palkhiwala, Qualcomm’s chief financial officer, said the company has already seen device makers cut production. “We just wish there was more memory,” Amon said.

But the delay in Windows gaming handhelds could also have something to do with Microsoft, which has worked very closely with Qualcomm on previous Windows on Arm launches and closely controls partner announcements. Microsoft just got a new gaming CEO, who is still figuring out its entire strategy for Xbox.

Regardless, RAMagedddon is expected to get worse, not better, in the second half. Today, IDC just forecast the biggest drop on record in global smartphone shipments, a 12.9% decline, over all of 2026. Samsung just announced new phones that start $100 more expensive than last year for minor updates, and a Samsung exec told me today that’s partly due to RAM.

Whenever they arrive, there seems to be potential for Arm gaming devices running Windows titles. Valve has quietly been the architect of a campaign to bring Windows games to Arm, and the early results are promising.