Jeff Lorbeck, Qualcomm Senior Vice President and General Manager of IoT hosted an analyst briefing called, Accelerating Digital Transformation through IoT. You may be surprised how the Internet of Things is another sizeable growth opportunity for both the company and in fact the entire industry. Let’s take a closer look.
IoT is not your typical Qualcomm story. Typically, they work with smartphone, tablet and handset makers and wireless networks, globally. This is a relatively smaller group of larger customers and they have a long relationship with each of them.
IoT is the different. There are more than 13,000 large IoT customers globally.
So, rather than dealing with a smaller group of larger customers, IoT means Qualcomm must deal with an enormous and ever-growing number of customers. That means the same wireless networks and handset makers, plus governments, enterprises and end users, worldwide.
That means Qualcomm must develop new ways of managing their business. This is one challenge they must wrap their arms around, and from what I see so far, they seem to be doing that well.
Tidal waves of IoT expansion opportunities
Qualcomm says there are tidal waves of IoT expansion that will impact all aspects of our lives. In fact, by the year 2023 over 43 billion IoT connected devices will be all around us.
IoT is a highly fragmented and distributed challenge. It requires many companies to work together. There needs to be an ecosystem of partnering companies forming a group that works together across global regions.
And there are a growing number of companies working together to share in this growth opportunity.
Three larger groups, traditional IT and software systems, traditional telco and carrier systems, traditional automation and control systems will all work together to bring this enormous IoT opportunity to reality in the next few years.
Qualcomm is in the process of building what they call, a comprehensive ecosystem for the Internet of Things. This means areas like chipset solutions, mobile operators, cloud platform providers and much more.
Enterprise is an IoT growth opportunity for Qualcomm
The enterprise is an enormous growth opportunity for IoT. In fact, IoT is fueling the digital transformation of the enterprise.
So, IoT will play an important role in the future of Qualcomm. Between computing, AI, AL, DL, security and connectivity, they are one of a few global leaders today.
The industries this will impact include retail, healthcare, utilities, metering, industrial handhelds, logistics, warehouse, asset management, camera security, panel security, control, automation, robotics, drones, intelligent machines, home enterprise and more.
This will also impact smart cities, smart connected spaces and IoT Ecosystems going forward.
Smart spaces are building blocks for smart communities
Remember, step by step, smart spaces are the building blocks for Smart Communities, and they are a building block to Smart Cities. This is a huge and growing new opportunity.
In fact, IoT joins other Qualcomm opportunities with connectivity, security, mobility, Edge, Cloud, AI and more. Connected healthcare is another enormous growth engine.
All these areas like IoT, artificial intelligence, connected healthcare, smart utilities, smart buildings, retail analytics, fixed wireless access, smart transformation, factory automation, connected education and so much more represent an enormous growth opportunity going forward.
Qualcomm says they are driving digital transformation today for a better tomorrow. Taking all these things into consideration, you can see the enormous growth opportunity all these areas have both separately and together.
Based on what I continually see, the future for Qualcomm and these different industries continue to look very bright.
