An explosion of demand for data on mobile devices has put a real strain on wireless network carriers and infrastructure.
Worldwide 5.7 billion people subscribe to a wireless device, said Roberto Padovani, executive vice president at Qualcomm.
“It’s truly the biggest platform in the history of mankind,” he said, during a Tuesday morning keynote address at the Texas Wireless Summit in downtown Austin.
The biggest growth comes from smart phones, Padovani said. The number of 3-G subscribers is expected to grow from 1.4 billion currently to 3.2 billion by 2015, he said.
The number of devices, applications and services and network capabilities continues to grow, Padovani said. Smart phone users will download an estimated 100 billion applications by 2015. Smart phone makers will sell 4 billion devices by 2015. And the days of the “all you can eat” data plans are going away.
“This is what is creating the perfect storm,” Padovani said.
The number of 3-G subscribers is expected to double every two years, he said. Today, 730 3-G networks exist in more than 200 countries. And more than 6,000 devices exist to connect to those networks, he said.
“3G brought connectivity to a point where we can consider it broadband,” Padovani said. “A lot of people will have Internet connectivity for the first time on a mobile device. The smart phone is becoming a dominant computing platform.”
Just this year, device makers launched more than 90 new smart phone models, Padovani said.
The growth in demand for data on mobile devices is coming from China, India, the Middle East and Africa, Padovani said. And sales of smart phones that cost less than $300 are growing at 40 percent annually, compared to 15 percent growth for smart phones that cost more than $300. And Google’s Android phone dominates the market with phones that cost less than $150, Padovani said.
But the growth in wireless devices is not just coming from phones but from everything from e-readers to blood glucose monitors to Mi-Fi devices and smart picture frames. And the wireless tablet market is projected to grow between 50 percent to 80 percent annually.
Data traffic growth doubled last year and is expected to grow ten to twelve times between 2010 and 2015.
“If you look at these numbers it’s just mind boggling,” Padovani said. “This is definitely challenging on the network side.”
Lots of opportunities for innovation exist for companies in the wireless industry, Padovani said.
Augmented reality and 3-D animated content on smart phones will put further constraints on the network, he said.
“The demands on the computing components of these devices is only going to get bigger,” Padovani said. “How do we deal with the spectrum crunch to support the explosion of data demands?”
The Federal Communications Commission, which regulates spectrum in the United States, is already exploring ways to free up more spectrum for the wireless industry, Padovani said.
Padovani was one of many speakers at the Texas Wireless Summit, which brings together companies, university researchers and venture capitalists. They gather to learn about the latest trends in the industry, said Kyle Cox with the Austin Technology Incubator, the event’s sponsor. About 200 people attended the day-long event at the AT&T Conference and Education Center. It’s the 10th annual Texas Wireless Summit and some companies exhibiting in the past have met funders at the event, Cox said. Austin-based companies showcasing their wares at this year’s event include Famigo Games, GameUp, Evernote, Digby and Digital Harmony Games.
Tag: technology (Page 22 of 25)
Dell is like the Central Intelligence Agency of customer monitoring.
At Dell World, Amy Heiss, executive producer with Dell’s Social Media Ground Control Center, spends her days “listening to customers” on social networks.
In fact, the software that powers Dell’s social media listening station comes from Radian6 and allows Dell to listen, like a fly on the wall, to conversations about itself on social networks. Radian6, based in Canada and founded in 2006, provides software that allows companies to analyze how their customers are talking about them on social media networks and to respond to them quickly.
For example, Dell monitors Twitter with the @DellCares Twitter account and every time someone mentions the company on that social network, an alert gets sent to one of the screens at Dell’s social media monitoring center. Dell also watches a screen filled with people deemed influential because of their reputation and the number of followers they have on Twitter. If one of those influential people tweets something negative, a red box appears around their name on the monitor. If they tweet something positive, they get a green box. If they tweet something neutral, the box is black.
Heiss says that the color-coded system allows Dell to respond immediately to people who have problems with the company or its products.
Dell launched its social media command center last December at its Round Rock headquarters.
Once criticized for its lack of customer engagement, Dell has fully embraced social media in the past decade. The company sees huge opportunity in engaging customers online. Even Founder and CEO Michael Dell regularly tweets.
Dell is number one worldwide in Healthcare technology solutions.
Dell partners with other companies like Citrix, VMWare and others to provide complete technology packages to hospitals, clinics, doctor’s offices and other healthcare providers. The company offers electronic medical records, medical archiving and mobile clinical computing.
Employees with the Dell healthcare division donned blue scrub outfits at Dell World and had a mock patient room set up to talk to people about its healthcare solutions. Sara Schaeffner, director of Dell’s healthcare services, talks about the company’s latest offerings at Dell World.
Dell is one of the top suppliers of technology to schools.
In the past few years, Dell has worked to provide schools with total technology packages in what it dubs the “connected classroom,” says Snow White, (yes, that’s her real name) a former elementary school teacher who works in Dell’s education technology division. She demonstrated some of that technology at Dell’s Solutions Expo at Dell World. The company showcased a projector, called the S300wi Interactive, that works with Dell’s laptop computers, smart board and pointer to allow students and the teacher to interact on wireless systems in the classroom. The teacher can either write directly on the smartboard or use it to write on the board from across the room.
During his keynote address at Dell World Thursday, Michael Dell proclaimed that Dell is no longer just a PC company. It is a global solutions provider.
In fact, Dell employs 40,000 people worldwide in the solutions area.
And Dell displayed many of its areas of solution expertise on the expo floor Thursday with Dell employees manning stations for everything from manufacturing Formula One race cars to secure computing solutions for healthcare and government applications like cameras and computers integrated into a patrol car.
Scott Radcliffe with Dell’s global government solutions division explains how law enforcement officials are using the company’s rugged computers in this video.
At Dell World 2011, Michael Dell will take questions today during a panel discussion with press and analysts at the Long Center in Austin.
The sold-out Dell World event begins with a welcoming reception at Austin City Limits Wednesday night. Then, bright and early, Michael Dell will deliver the keynote at 8 a.m. Thursday at the Austin Convention Center. His speech will discuss trends in the virtual world such as data overload, mobile applications and security. He’ll also talk about how Dell’s “customers can best succeed, compete and innovate.”
Dell World 2011 also features speeches from Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, Intel CEO Paul Otellini, Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce.com, former White House CIO Vivek Kundra, VMware CEO Paul Maritz, IDC Research Vice President Michelle Bailey and many others. The focus is on innovation.
Justin.TV is broadcasting the event live at 2 p.m. central time.
Today, the Game Developers Conference Online kicked off at the Austin Convention Center.
The conference, which runs through Thursday, features keynotes by John Vechey, co-founder of PopCap Games, author Neal Stephenson and David Calvo, creative director at Dofus creator Ankama.
In addition, the conference has panels, round-table discussions and an Expo with 78 exhibitors. The conference focuses on video game narratives, virtual items, smartphone and table games.
The organizers of TedxSanAntonio selected Gurvinder Pal “G.P.” Singh, founder of San Antonio-based Karta Technologies, as one of its speakers for next weekend’s event.
Singh now serves as CEO of Paras Capital Management. He will speak on his “Entrepreneurial Journey: From Expert Technologist to Servant Leader.”
Singh started Karta Technologies in his garage and sold it in 2007 to NCI, Inc., a government contractor in the information technology industry, for nearly $65 million.
Karta, a privately-held company, worked as a military and government contractor as well as for commercial customers. At the time of the sale, Karta had more than 400 employees and offices in 25 locations.
The second TEDxSanAntonio will be held at Trinity University’s Stieren Theatre on Oct. 15. Last year, about 250 people attended the inaugural TEDxSanAntonio event. TEDx is affiliated with the TED Conference held in Long Beach, Calif. every year. But the x stands for independently organized.
Last year’s event featured a speech by Rackspace Chairman Graham Weston on treating employees well.
“What we all want is to be valued members of a winning team on an inspiring mission,” Weston said.
Paul Bundschuh presented an update on Ideal Power Converters at the 2011 Clean Energy Venture Summit in Austin. The company makes power supply devices for solar and wind power generation.
It is seeking $3 million in funding to expand its manufacturing plant in Austin. IPC received a $1 million award from the Texas Emerging Technology Fund last December.
The Austin-based company has also received $500,000 from angel investors and $250,000 from Battery Ventures.
The company develops new power-converter technology including solar inverters, wind converters, AC motor drives, and hybrid–electric vehicles.
IPC used its initially funding for developing product prototypes and plans to use the new funds for manufacturing. Bundschuh says IPC can manufacture its products in Austin at half the price of its competitors in China.
The company, with 10 employees, spun out of the Austin Technology Incubator, which it joined in October of 2008. IPC presented as a finalist at the Clean Energy Venture Summit in 2009
Smart Office Energy Solutions, based in Houston, is the only Texas company going on to compete in the CleanTech Open nationals, held in San Jose in November.
Bryan Hassin, CEO of Smart Office Energy Solutions, says the company’s software, hardware and services package can reduce a building’s energy consumption by 25 percent. Smart Office Energy Solutions is testing the prototype of its product with customers currently and plans to launch commercially next year.