Qualcomm and Iridium Communications have ended their partnership to provide satellite services on smartphones. The decision came after smartphone manufacturers failed to incorporate the technology into their devices. Qualcomm and Iridium announced the partnership in January, and the two companies have successfully developed and demonstrated the technology. But smartphone makers were hesitant to adopt the technology from Qualcomm and Iridium.

“Smartphone OEMs prefer standards-based solutions for satellite communications in mobile devices,” a Qualcomm spokesperson told FierceWireless. “We hope to continue working with Iridium on standards-based solutions, concluding our work on our proprietary solution that we introduced earlier this year.”

Iridium CEO Matt Dash said the company was disappointed the partnership didn’t yield immediate results, but he believes the industry’s direction is clear to expand satellite communications in consumer devices.

“Today, under Apple’s leadership, mobile operators and device manufacturers still plan to deliver expanded coverage and new satellite capabilities to their customers over time, and our global reach and regulatory certainty make us well-suited to be a major player in this market. Dash said in a statement: told.

Iridium said terminating its agreements with Qualcomm allows the company to re-engage directly with smartphone OEMs, other chipmakers and smartphone operating system developers it has worked with in the past.

The company also said it will pursue new relationships with “smart device OEMs” for current and future service plans.