Qualcomm CEO Dr. Paul Jacobs shared his mobile vision with several thousand CES keynote attendees on Tuesday, with much of the focus on emerging markets. The company’s silicon powers more mobile devices than its peers — 7 billion chips sold and counting — thanks to successes in the U.S. and Europe, but Qualcomm’s future is about expanding borders.
In addition to some product data in regard to Qualcomm’s Snapdragon line of processors, Jacobs shared these telling numbers that set the mobile stage for past, present and future:
- 2011 revenues for the wireless industry were $ 1.3 trillion or about 2 percent of global GDP
- Emerging countries represent 80 percent of global population and will account for 50 percent of global GDP by 2014
- China will surpass 1 billion wireless connections this year, and two-thirds of the population will access the web via their mobile
- Wireless recently surpassed wired connections in India
- 1.4 billion new 3G connections in emerging areas are expected in next four years
- By 2015, half of all smartphones are expected to ship to emerging markets
To further emphasize this theme, Jacobs invited a guest speaker to the keynote: Nokia CEO Stephen Elop took to the stage saying, “Nokia is a gateway to the world.”
It’s a fitting statement, given Nokia has always taken a global approach to mobile devices. In addition, every Microsoft Windows Phone, including those from Nokia, run on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processor.
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