“The transitions, 3G to 4G, 4G to 5G, are very important in order to maintain your leadership position and also it enables you to really open up and expand your business in the new areas,” says Qualcomm CEO Steve Mollenkopf. “5G is really designed so that other industries such as automotive, self-driving cars, connected healthcare, connected education, connected infrastructure, are really set up to use cellular for the first time at massive scale.”

Steve Mollenkopf, CEO of Qualcomm, discusses how 5G is for the first time enabling industry to use cellular technology on a massive scale in an interview on CNBC:

5G is Designed So That Industries Can Use Cellar at Massive Scale

In this industry, you do not want to miss the transitions. The transitions, 3G to 4G, 4G to 5G, are very important in order to maintain your leadership position and also it enables you to really open up and expand your business in the new areas. This is more so true on 5G than any other G transition. We wanted to make sure that we were able to position the company do that. We did that while at the same time we brought a lot of other costs discipline within the envelope. We’re very pleased to be able to do that. It was a good call to make. I’m very proud of the team to be able to execute on that in the midst of what probably looked like a lot of distractions from the outside.

5G is really designed so that other industries such as automotive, self-driving cars, connected healthcare, connected education, connected infrastructure, are really set up to use cellular for the first time at massive scale. Our problem today is not, do we have a great technology lead? It is how do we scale that across new industries? This is a good problem to have and I’m looking forward to tackling it with all my energy.

The Energy of the Companies is on How to Ramp up Quickly

Really talking about the past and some of the he said she said is not that helpful. I can tell you where the energy of the two companies is right now. The energy of the companies right now is let’s figure out how to ramp up as quickly as possible. The relationship is focused on that issue. I’ve had a lot of discussions not only within my team but also with the Apple team. That’s the focus. We talk all the time. The companies to get to an agreement as complex as this you’ve got to talk. But I can tell you, companies like this they move on and they move on to the things that are natural to work together which is products. We’re all excited about doing that.

We are two product-focused organizations. We’re working on products, we’ve done it in the past and we love doing it. We’re good at doing it. That’s where the focus is that’s what we’re excited about. The reality is when you’re working on technologies that are meaningful and are relevant to many industries worldwide you’re going to grab attention. As long as you have a technology lead you can work your way through that. We were able to do that in the past and certainly were able to do that over the last five-plus years. I’m sure it’s going to be a little bit more calm but I can tell you I’m very happy to have that technology position.