70 per cent of gadgets will be connected by 2014

MWC 2011: Qualcomm sees wireless future

Qualcomm’s CEO, Paul Jacobs, has outlined a future where every device is connected to the Internet and each other.

“The phone will become the centre of your life,” said Jacobs in his keynote speech to delegates at?Mobile World Congress?in Barcelona.

Qualcomm, who makes chipsets that power most of the world’s smartphones, says there is a number of ways this is likely to happen in the future.?

“70 per cent of all consumer devices will be connected to the internet by 2014,” Jacob says citing a recent survey from the Consumer Electronics Association to drive home his points.

“It will be the remote control of all the things around you,” reaffirmed Jacobs before talking up a number of different wireless technologies, like Peer 2 Peer, that will see local connectivity between devices, Wi-Fi, and of course radio, like mobile phones.

“More of these devices are going to have connectivity, but if we are going to interact with these devices it has to be simple,” he warned, suggesting that operators, manufacturers and chipset makers should make sure that they all work together rather than fighting.

And how are we going to power all this stuff? Wirelessly as well it seems, with Jacobs saying that the company is looking into wireless power in collaboration with Powermat and Duracell so we don’t even need to plug our gadgets in.

Applying the principles of near-field magnetic resonance, Qualcomm’s offering, called eZone, will let you charge multiple devices without having to connect them to individual wired battery chargers, says the company. ?

“eZone does not require that devices be positioned or aligned in any exact manner, or that they have any specific conductive surface that must touch eZone.”

At the moment Powermat’s offering requires you to make a connection with a set spot on a tray to start the charging process, but Qualcomm hopes this isn’t going to be the case forever.

“There is still one wire left, the power cord,” explained Jacobs clearly hoping that 1 day there won’t be.

Tags: Phones Tablets Cameras Qualcomm MWC2011

70 per cent of gadgets will be connected by 2014 originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 16 Feb 2011 12:34:00 +0000

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