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Qualcomm's Paul Jacobs: too early to call the game on Windows Phone
This shouldn't come as a surprise after Steve Ballmer crashed the Qualcomm CES keynote yesterday, but at a follow-up briefing earlier today, the latter's CEO Paul Jacobs reiterated his support for Windows Phone. The exec said "it's too early to call the game" on Microsoft's mobile OS, and emphasized that he "never counted Microsoft out" as it has a lot of resources plus benefits, especially with the tie-in with its enterprise software and Xbox. "It is growing, they are gaining traction. When you use the devices they work well. That's pretty key," said Jacobs. Well, we're certainly fans of the Snapdragon-powered HTC 8X and Lumia 920, so it'll be up to Microsoft to convince more consumers. When asked whether the latest Snapdragon flagship is overshadowed by NVIDIA's Tegra 4 in terms of graphics performance, Jacobs insisted that is a very wrong assumption, and he's actually very confident about his own product's capability courtesy of his in-house graphics engineers. SVP of product management Raj Talluri added that even the Snapdragon 600 has a much higher CPU and GPU performance than both Tegra 4 and Intel's Clover Trail+. Obviously we'll know the truth when the consumer devices eventually land on our hands later this year.
Qualcomm ships one billion BREWs, Verizon thirsty for more
Qualcomm isn't finished with the dumbphone just yet. Even after announcing that 250 handsets with Snapdragon cores are in the pipeline, CEO Paul Jacobs slapped his Uplinq 2011 audience with a stunner: over one billion BREW-enabled devices have been shipped. For its part, Qualcomm is continuing to stoke BREW's flames, and Verizon seems perfectly willing to stay aboard. The carrier will introduce several BREW MP devices over the coming months, and the majority of these phones will feature a new storefront for mobile purchases -- oh joy. In addition to getting recommendations, shoppers will be able to test drive many applications before making purchases. This is all well and good, but we'd prefer Jacobs had previewed some of those new Snapdragons. Follow the break for a joint PR from Qualcomm and Verizon.
Qualcomm CEO confirms death of 5.7-inch Mirasol e-reader display, looks forward to 'next version'
Remember that Mirasol e-reader display Qualcomm was hoping to release this year? Yeah, it's not happening. Speaking at a press briefing in San Diego yesterday, Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs confirmed that the 5.7-inch panel has been abandoned after failing to meet expectations. Instead, the company will devote its attention to the "next version" of the technology, which has Jacobs feeling optimistic: "We have a really interesting roadmap -- we're starting out on e-readers because we figured having E Ink as a competing technology was a good way to get started. But if you think about the power consumption of the screens that are out now [on tablets], they're very bright OLED screens that use up a lot of the power of the battery. We don't today have as vibrant color as an OLED display - but we have a roadmap that gets us to a much brighter color." Presumably, this roadmap would include that low-power "converged e-reader" we heard about a few weeks ago, slated for release by the end of the year. Jacobs also mentioned that Qualcomm is planning to invest a billion dollars in its Taiwan Mirasol plant, which might help produce the kind of volume that, say, Amazon would demand for its Kindle displays. It's all speculation, of course, but Qualcomm certainly seems to have some big plans in store for the rest of the year.
Qualcomm's CEO confesses: tablets killed the smartbook star
We remember it like it was yesterday -- pressed against the edge of our seat, speakerphone on 11, listening to Qualcomm preach about how these so-called "smartbooks" were coming to take over the world. Can't fault 'em for trying. A little over a year after the (admittedly valiant) effort began, Qualcomm's CEO is effectively putting this whole nightmare behind him. According to Slashgear, Paul Jacobs admitted during an event this morning that "tablets such as the iPad had already occupied the niche his company expected smartbooks to." Essentially, the iPad delivered on the concept of an "always-on, all-day device" long before smartbooks ever had a chance at gaining traction, and judging by the fact that only a handful of these guys ever made it to market, we'd say that brutally honest assessment makes a lot of sense. We aren't necessarily better off for it, mind you, but it definitely seems that the resurgence of the tablet (and the proliferation of the longevous netbook) has extinguished any hope of smartbooks dominating the world. Hey, at least this guy's man enough to know when a journey's reached its end. Sayonara, smarties.
Qualcomm demos augmented reality app for digital photo frames (video)
Want a glimpse of the future? How about one from Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs? What he demoed in London just now was a groovy concept that combines his company's two service technologies: augmented reality and peer-to-peer. The idea is that you want to upload an image from your phone to one of your many wireless photo frames (actually WiFi-connected PCs in disguise here), but rather than having to pick your desired frame from an eye-dazzling list of WiFi SSIDs, you can just use this augmented reality app -- developed using Qualcomm's very own AR SDK, naturally -- to point at the frame and shoot the file over. Pretty rad, huh? But we picked out one flaw: currently, the app identifies each frame by remembering its previously uploaded image, so if two or more of these frames display the same image, the app would get confused. This can of course be fixed by simply adding a QR code onto the actual frame. Anyhow, you can see this demo in action after the break.
Nokia to splice Symbian and Snapdragon this year, says Qualcomm CEO
Tune your brainwaves back to October 2009, when there were whispers and dreams of a Nokia phone fitted with the fast and trendy Snapdragon processor. Now tune back to present day, where Qualcomm's CEO Paul Jacobs has mentioned in an interview that just such a Symbian-powered device (S^3, we'd hope) is on the horizon. Better yet, it's coming sometime in 2010. No other details, but hey, sometimes all you need is a hope and a prayer to get by.
Qualcomm shows off Snapdragon-powered Lenovo smartbook for AT&T
It may still have a few lingering problems with the "smartbook" name, but it looks like Qualcomm is pushing ahead with the still-nascent product category nonetheless, with CEO Paul Jacobs taking advantage of a recent investor get-together in New York to show off a new Lenovo-built smartbook that will apparently be offered by AT&T. Unfortunately, neither Lenovo nor AT&T is saying anything about the device just yet, and Jacobs doesn't seem to have offered much more than what was already known from the standard smartbook specs. There is the requisite low-res photo captured from the webcast, however, and all parties involved should be doing plenty more talking when this one makes its official debut at CES in January.
