Qualcomm Expects To Ship 1B 5G Smartphones By 2023

Qualcomm President Cristiano Amon spoke at CES 2020 on Monday (Jan. 6) and debuted a few new products from the company, according to a report by VentureBeat.

Amon introduced the Lenovo 5G PC, which is a dual-purpose laptop and tablet called the Yoga 5G. It will be available in the spring of this year at a retail price of $1,499.

Lenovo’s Yoga 5G is being touted as the world’s first 5G PC. Because of its spring release, it will beat similar devices by Dell and HP to market.

It appears that the first wave of 5G laptops are powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X55 modem, whether they are using Intel or Qualcomm CPUs.

Lenovo’s 5G PC will have a 24-hour battery life, a 14-inch display, Dolby Atmos sound technology, a fingerprint scanner and an IR camera.

Amon said that previous targets of having 200 million 5G devices by 2020 was “conservative,” and that the company keeps getting momentum for its Snapdragon series 8- and 7-series chips.

Right now, there are more than 340 operators putting money into 5G around the world, he said, including 45 that already offer 5G technology.

The company said it expects more than 200 million 5G smartphones to ship this year. By 2022, that number is expected to surpass 750 million, and by 2023 it could surpass one billion – which is two years quicker than 4G hit that milestone.

The Yoga 5G is also being promoted as a more secure route to online connectivity as opposed to open Wi-Fi. The option will enable customers to connect through their 5G cell service, which is thought to be more secure.

Qualcomm also briefly announced another upcoming release – the Cloud AI 100, which is an AI processing unit made for the cloud. The company said the unit will highlight power efficiency and allow for better use of AI tech for all parts of the cloud.