LAS
VEGAS—The 2012 International CES got off to a good start Tuesday with a Day One
keynote from Paul Jacobs, chairman and CEO of Qualcomm. Following a flashy
performance by the international dance troupe Jabberwocky, Jacobs took the
stage to deliver a broad, high-level view of the many ways mobile devices are revolutionizing
the way we live.
Jacobs
should know. Qualcomm’s wireless chipsets power 300 mobile device models, while
350 are currently in development and the company has shipped over 7 billion
chipsets worldwide, making it one of the largest providers of silicon in the
world. Jacobs noted wireless industry revenues for 2011 topped $1.3 trillion,
fully 2 percent of GDP.
Among
the many themes Jacobs touched on was the importance of emerging markets as the
next frontier for growth, estimating that by 2015, roughly half of all smartphones
will ship to those countries.
But
it was the products that Qualcomm’s chips power that were really on display.
Nokia CEO Stephen Elop was on hand to show off the company’s Lumia line of smartphones,
which run on Qualcomm chips. Jacobs demonstrated a Windows 8 tablet powered by
a Snapdragon chip and running on AT&T’s LTE network.
Additionally,
Liu Jun, senior vice president of Lenovo and president of the company’s mobile Internet
and digital home group, demonstrated an Android-based smart TV that runs on
Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processor. Given the processing power, the TV can double
as a gaming console. The TV will be on display at Qualcomm’s connected home
display on the exhibit floor.
Not
every product demoed was all fun and games. Jacobs talked innovation in the
classroom as well, pitching Mirasol eReaders, as well as Qualcomm’s Vuforia augmented
reality platform as important innovations in interactive learning.
H.
Melvin Ming, president and CEO of Sesame Street Workshop, explained how the
classic educational program and brand are using augmented reality to make
figurines of the show’s characters come to life on tablets. A demonstration
showed how a user can point a tablet’s camera at a figurine of a Sesame Street
character, which then prompts an interactive animation.
mHealth
was another area that Jacobs predicts will revolutionize consumer lives. Dr.
Eric Topol, chief academic officer for Scripps Health and author of “The Creative
Destruction of Medicine,” demonstrated a number of wireless devices that will
allow consumers to monitor their health through the use of low-cost, portable
sensors. Topol demonstrated a smartphone-based heart monitor that he said
helped him diagnose a man having a heart attack while on an airplane. The plane
was able to make an emergency landing and the man’s life was saved.
Jacobs
keynote was a fitting kickoff for CES, which has increasingly seen an emphasis
on wireless technologies as a way of connecting the many different products on
display in Las Vegas. As Qualcomm’s shipments continue to grow, it’s evident
that it is the unconnected product on the CES exhibit floor that will be the
exception going forward.