The next generation mobile telephony or 5G is looking to revolutionise the industry with higher bandwidth and speed, possibilities are rife for experts to realise their vision of smart cities, IOT, smart homes, AI robots and driverless vehicles.

Most likely the central control unit for most of this technology will be the smartphone, Qualcomm a major advocate of 5G has been testing on the real life use of such applications on devices. China has been quick in adopting new use of technology and is looking to have the ecosystem ready as early as 2019. Leading manufacturers have already started working with Qualcomm to support the initiative and introduce 5G New Radio (NR) standard-compliant commercial devices under the  “5G Pioneer” Initiative. Lenovo, OPPO, Vivo, Xiaomi,  ZTE Corporation and Wingtech all  aim to accelerate the availability of commercial 5G premium tier devices expected in 2019.

An example of readiness of Chinese people is based on the recent survey conducted by Qualcomm which shows that 60% of consumers are likely to purchase 5G smartphones when available, an eagerness shown unlike any other country. The chip maker anticipates being able to provide Chinese manufacturers with the platform they need to develop premium 5G phone and also assist in exploring new mobile applications and transformative technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT) .

Cristiano Amon, president, Qualcomm commented “Qualcomm Technologies has close relationships within China’s mobile and semiconductor ecosystem, and we’ll continue to work with this ecosystem to drive innovation as we move from the 3G/4G era to the 5G era.”

Not confined to just mobile phones, Wingtech will also build 5G always connected PCs using Qualcomm made for PC processors.