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China is entering a golden age of wireless innovation that is being driven by three technological factor.
They include the rise of compact handsets that combine astonishing power with long battery life; the growing coverage of third-generation (3G) networks that provide fast wireless data connections; and the rise of services that put all new power into use.
Each of these factors is important individually. But the combination of the three makes the wireless revolution come true.
The pairing of faster processors with better battery life is fundamental to the rise of smartphones.
From this comes the number-crunching ability to run sophisticated operating systems like Google’s Android and it drives large, color touch screens, high definition video and data-intensive applications.
Plus, it still ensures that a phone will run for two or three days between charges.
Faster processors are also blurring the lines between phones and computers, enabling large-screen devices with phone-like, full-time wireless connections, such as tablets and smartbooks.
Manufacturers in China are producing both kinds of devices for export and the quickly growing domestic market.
The evolution of networks is also critical.
Last year, China made a leap by announcing the transition to 3G networks. It is early in the adoption curve, but today all three Chinese wireless operators are energetically expanding and marketing their 3G networks.
The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology estimates that China will have 150 million 3G subscribers by the end of 2011.
But services, the third component, bring handsets to life and make fast, ubiquitous networks valuable to users.
When you think about the applications that are changing the ways people use their phones, many of them are services delivered online.
Apple’s AppStore has led the way, with over four billion applications downloaded. Android, BlackBerry and Palm application stores are also gaining speed.
The rise of touch screens, tablets and smartbooks has broken the mold by which previous generations of phones were defined, opening up an entire new world.
As smartphones have matured, they bear little resemblance to phones from five years ago, and add capabilities previously undreamed of.
Developers have started figuring out entirely new ways to use the combination of power and connectivity.
China is potentially the world’s biggest wireless technology market, and it boasts some of the world’s most influential wireless technology companies and a growing number of hungry, smaller companies.
In working with our Chinese partners, we at Qualcomm are constantly amazed by the energy and spirit of innovation we have seen.
There is the opportunity for these companies to assert themselves in this emerging reality and to claim a piece of it for themselves.
The author is Qualcomm’s executive vice-president. The opinions expressed are his own.
