According to Qualcomm's president Derek Aberle, the company is now looking to grow its presence in the burgeoning Internet of Things (IoT) market significantly.
Speaking at an event held by Qualcomm in San Francisco, Aberle said the industry needed technology leaders with the right scale and resources if the Internet of Everything, as the company refers to the IoT, is to deliver value to individuals, communities and companies.
Qualcomm, long associated with the smartphone market, is looking to firmly establish itself in this growing market and, while the chip maker has been working in the IoT sector for the past few years, Aberle said that it would now be looking to push much harder into the market as it unveiled a number of new products.
"Qualcomm is well-positioned to provide advanced connectivity, computing and interoperability for devices and machines," he said. "Our technologies are already driving this new era of intelligent connectivity and computing and we plan to invest heavily in these emerging segments."
Rivals Samsung, IBM and Intel have all released IoT-enabled chips and Intel revealed that it was investing more than $3billion in building its own IoT business unit.
To emphasise the scope and range of Qualcomm's presence, Aberle used his presentation to describe the companies work in a variety of projects, including smart cities – covering areas such as municipal Wi-Fi, water use, recycling, lighting, transportation, energy and infrastructure – as well as in connected healthcare, where Qualcomm Life, the company's mobile health unit, now has around 500 customers and collaborators.
The company is also heavily involved in developing wearable devices and, according to Aberle, 'more than 20million connected vehicles are currently deployed globally with Qualcomm Snapdragon LTE and 3G modems'.
Last year, the company generated more than $1billion from supplying the IoT market, said Aberle.
Aberle also talked about the company's 'vision' for the IoT.
"We want to make devices so smart that they do not have to be connected to the Internet to be controlled by individuals; instead, the device should learn and adapt to scenarios. If the devices are smarter, much more of the computing can be done at the device, instead of up in the cloud."
The size of the IoT market is open to debate and, depending on the definition of the market, estimates of its worth range from $1bn to almost $20bn this year.
Aberle said that, whatever the figure, the opportunities for companies like Qualcomm were enormous and the importance of first mover advantage would be significant. "We're determined that Qualcomm will take a big slice of the pie for itself," he suggested.
Qualcomm used the event to launch two new chips. It is hoping the QCA401x and QCA4531 will spur development of IoT products.
The QCA401x is Qualcomm's flagship IoT chip and is intended to be used to power devices such light bulbs, smart TVs, cameras and other gadgets. The QCA4531, which is a Linux based Wi-Fi device, will act as a hub between larger devices like media servers and appliances.
"Across the board, our technologies are supporting the Internet of Everything, whether through more intelligent connectivity or computing. To ensure success we need to not only provide a range of solutions to what is a very diverse market but better understand how connectivity will drive a much deeper market engagement," Aberle concluded.
Author
Tom Austin-Morgan
Source: www.newelectronics.co.uk