One of the big winners at CES 2010 was mobile chip maker Qualcomm. Their speedy Snapdragon processors seem to have wormed their way into most of the hot gadgets on display. Lenovo in particular seem infatuated with the processors, utilising Snapdragons on their new Android based LePhone smartphone, Skylight netbook and on the slate half of their ultra-hot IdeaPad U1 hybrid tablet. Snapdragons can also be found in Acer’s first Android phone the A1 Liquid, one of HP’s new netbooks, and, although not present at CES, in Google’s newly announced Nexus One smartphone.

While Qualcomm also showed off a new type of display technology, dubbed mirasol, for use in ereaders, it’s the revelation of Qualcomm’s upcoming speedier Snapdragons that grabbed attention. According to Luis Pineda, SVP of product management for Qualcomm CDMA Technologies, the 8X50A Snapdragon running at 1.3 GHz will feature on devices before the end of the year. The one we’re looking forward to the most though is their dual-core 8X72, with each core running at 1.5 GHz. It will be able to process HD content, something that current smartphones or netbooks are far from capable of. The 8X72 will only be available to manufacturers at the end of the year, so were not likely to see its debut on a device untill 2011.

On the cellular side Qualcomm seems to run the roost, with the only phone announced sporting rival Intel’s Moorestown processor being the LG GW990. Moorestown is chipmaker Intel’s next-generation platform for handhelds and smartphones. With Apple rumoured to adopt Qualcomm processors in upcoming iPhones, the future couldn't look brighter for the San Diego based company.