Next Year Qualcomm Believes 3G Phones Will Make Up Half The Total Market

Qualcomm's Chairman and CEO Dr. Paul E. Jacobs

Qualcomm’s CEO Paul Jacobs not only sees more people carrying around more capable and robust phones, but he also believes the next frontier is a category called smartbooks, which are small laptops devices that run all day on a single charge and are always connected.

In an interview with The Financial Times, Jacobs predicted that 3G phones will be more than half the total market by next year, and that they will be super advanced pieces of technology with tons of power and consumer functionality. It’s unclear what market Jacobs was talking about, but in the U.S. in the second quarter, 3G phone shipments only made up 28 percent of all sales, according to NPD Group. The number of 3G phones increased 47 percent compared to last year, meaning that in order to hit 50 percent, the sales rate will have to dramatically pick up.

He also said that by the end of 2009, we’ll start seeing smartbooks, which vary a bit from the netbook market that’s current available. They differ because a smartbook is more like a phone because it’s connected to the internet at all times and will sync flawlessly to your email, calendar and contacts. They’ll typically have 10 inch screens and a full-size keyboard. Jacobs: “We almost look at it as a perfect storm of the device capabilities, high-speed networks and all the web applications that are being created. They come together and provide an opportunity to create a totally new experience.” (It’s unclear if Qualcomm (NSDQ: QCOM) came up with the name themselves, but nonetheless, they are being sued over it in Germany, where htey were just hit with a restraining order and $357,000 fine, reports JkOnTheRun.)

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