Research from investment magazine Motley Fool  said that at the moment Qualcomm is doing OK because two of the market leaders Apple and Samsung dominate the global smartphone market, particularly the high end.

Its research found that half of Qualcomm's business comes from Samsung, Apple, and their respective suppliers and to make matters worse that dependence is increasing.

If Qualcomm lost one or both of these companies it would be a complete disaster and there are signs that might happen

Already Samsung dropped the Snapdragon 810 in the Galaxy S6 earlier this year, instead opting to use its own Exynos processors, and there might be some other decisions that both Apple and Samsung might make in a similar vein.

One Samsung's three CEOs, J.K. Shin said Samsung previously used more Qualcomm mobile processors, but now it sees itself as "flexible."

Qualcomm has been Apple's exclusive supplier of cellular baseband modems for several years, and Apple is the quintessential volume customer. Apple has shipped 210 million iPhones over the past four quarters, each sporting a Qualcomm modem.

But Jobs Mob is developing its own baseband modem and while it could be years away it makes a lot of sense for Apple to design its own own.