Qualcomm Inc. provided more evidence of surging demand for smartphones and tablet-style computers, posting a 29 percent increase in fiscal second-quarter earnings on revenue that jumped 46 percent.
The San Diego-based company said it benefited not only from growing demand for its chips–used in various classes of cellphones–but also a rise in their average selling prices as users gravitated toward more-sophisticated models. Qualcomm gets much of its profit from patent royalties charged to hardware companies, based on a percentage of the price of each handset.
The company’s results, which exceeded analyst projections and its own estimates, caused its stock to jump in after-hours trading.