The next great leap in cellular communications will soon be upon us.
So says Cristiano Amon, president of Qualcomm. He oversees all activities related to the company’s semiconductor business and now the latest cellular standard, 5G. He joined Qualcomm in 1995 as an engineer, eventually rising through the ranks to senior management.
Amon also explained why 5G is going to be a big deal for not only mobile phone calls, but data and mobile computing. He believes it is the most significant advance since we moved to digital from analog mobile calling.
He is also in charge of the QCT roadmap, which lays out the future plan of the next 3 generations of mobile semiconductors simultaneously. The challenge in designing multiple generations of chipsets for phones, tablets and other products years in advance is that you have to make an educated guess as to both the technological capabilities that might exist as well as consumer demand for new features and capabilities. We discussed the transition from engineer to a manager, as they use somewhat different skill sets.
A transcript of our conversation is available here.
You can stream and download our full conversation, including the podcast extras, on Apple iTunes, Spotify, Overcast, Google, Bloomberg, and Stitcher. All of our earlier podcasts on your favorite pod hosts can be found here.
Next week, we speak with David Dunning, professor of psychology at the University of Michigan, where he focuses on the psychology underlying human misbelief. He is best known for the Dunning Kruger effect, his work on metacognition and why the unskilled are unaware of their lack of skills.
