Author: Mr.Yu
On May 21, 2021, Qualcomm held the 2021 Technology and Cooperation Summit at the Water Cube in Beijing.
From the outside, these types of summits are often interpreted as the host showing off their muscles. However, in our view, this summit, themed “Empowering Everything with 5G,” was more like Qualcomm showcasing its “circle of friends,” flexing its muscles, and presenting its QR code to every potential partner with a smile, saying:
“Friend, let’s connect?”
Perhaps you are already tired of the post-modern industrial punk scene of robots as noodle cutters with dual blades in hand, skillfully tossing dough into the pot. The coffee-making OrionStar robot presented at the summit offers a more elegant and refreshing choice.
Would you like a cup of Cyberpunk-style coffee made by a robot barista?
If you prefer sports, you can choose to have a ping-pong match with a robot player. World table tennis champion Ding Ning came to the scene to play against the Pong-bot, a ping-pong robot with Qualcomm’s wireless communication and high-performance mobile computing advantages.
True wireless stereo earphones (TWS) are no longer unfamiliar to the Chinese consumer market. Although the “craftsmen” in Huaqiangbei once made AirPod clones at a heartwarming price of 29 yuan, including a protective case and free shipping, the various types of TWS earphones displayed at the summit still powerfully conveyed the rapid popularization and iterative experience of consumer-grade wireless audio devices in the past two years, which could not be achieved without Qualcomm’s promotion.
With the continuous growth of demand for car networking, digital cockpit, and autonomous driving, the automobile has become another major terminal after personal computers and smartphones.
For more than 15 years, Qualcomm has provided technological solutions for the automotive industry, and the fruitful cooperation has demonstrated the old Chinese saying: “Silent work brings prosperity.”In the global automotive industry, 20 out of 25 top automakers have chosen Qualcomm Snapdragon Automotive Digital Cockpit Platform, including mainstream brands such as Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Audi, Volkswagen, Toyota, and Porsche. Qualcomm’s automotive solutions have empowered over 150 million vehicles worldwide and cover four major areas: connected car and cellular vehicle-to-everything (C-V2X), digital cockpit, advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and autonomous driving, and cloud-side terminal management.
“As we did the math, Ideal One car owners spend an average of 4.4 hours per week in the car without driving,” said Shen Yanan, Co-Founder and President of Ideal Automotive, one of Qualcomm’s partners in the automotive industry, citing first-party data to describe the changes brought by Qualcomm’s automotive digital cockpit platform to the Ideal ONE cabin experience.
Ideal ONE’s four-screen voice interaction is already widely known, and with the integration of application ecosystems such as WeChat and QQ Music, Ideal is extending the in-car experience. Whether it’s a nap for office workers or waiting to pick up children after school, Ideal’s intelligent cockpit offers excellent choices.
Shen Yanan stated that Ideal Automotive and Qualcomm’s long-term collaboration will continue to embrace the mission of “creating a mobile home,” relying on Qualcomm’s most advanced technology and products to build intelligent electric vehicles that are better than gasoline vehicles, making the car an extension of the home into a new smart space.
On the other hand, the intense presence of the orange-painted body of the HiPhi X made it impossible to ignore in a venue mainly dominated by cold tones such as white and blue.
The Qualcomm Snapdragon Digital Cockpit Platform provides HiPhi X with multiple 4K display screens which work together to provide immersive multimedia experiences for users.
Moreover, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 5G platform, which integrates C-V2X technology, provides HiPhi X with various scenarios, including vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communications, 5G and vehicle networking services, and assists in the vehicle’s autonomous driving functions.
These are only some of the results that Qualcomm proudly shares in its “circle of friends” in the automotive industry.
In the past 18 months, domestic automakers have launched more than 20 models equipped with Qualcomm’s automotive solutions. To date, the total estimated value of Qualcomm’s automotive solution orders has approached $9 billion, including connected cars, in-car entertainment, and in-car connection.# Qualcomm China President Meng Pu：Over 18 automakers plan to release new vehicles supporting 5G technology in the first 2 years of commercial use, surpassing the pace of 4G adoption during its early stage from 2013 to 2014 when only 2 automakers released 4G-supported cars. The visible speed of 5G adoption is driven by the maturing demand signal.
In Conclusion
As usual, we will end our discussion with a short story. Like most middle-aged and elderly smartphone users, Mr. Yu’s father, Mr. Lao, is fond of various technology and political-economic-themed short videos, and he enjoys sharing the seemingly scary clips among his peers.
Mr. Lao once mysteriously showed a video in which a lady carefully explained that 5G would soon become the norm and that 4G and previous communication technologies, as well as current devices, would become obsolete. At the end of the demonstration, Mr. Lao sarcastically claimed that Mr. Yu’s newly purchased phone did not support 5G and would soon become outdated.
Although Mr. Lao did not understand the difference between the Gs in terms of memory, storage, and mobile communication technology, and he had no intention of figuring it out.
This was the early summer of 2018.
After attending the Qualcomm summit, the most significant impression we had was that technology companies, represented by Qualcomm, are deploying cross-industry strategies at a pace that surpasses people’s imaginations.
We believe that the one-sided denunciation and advocacy of new technologies are both biased. After all, we have already boarded the 5G express train driving into the fast lane. How this vehicle will accelerate in a way perceivable by us requires rational recognition from the government, enterprises, the entire society, you, and me.
This article is a translation by ChatGPT of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.