Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Tech Summit took place on the Big Island of Hawaii from the 30th of November to the 2nd of December. The central theme of the event was the reimagining of Qualcomm under its new CEO, Cristiano Amon. The cornerstone of this reinvention is Snapdragon which represents Cristiano’s vision for Qualcomm’s future and its strategy for expanding its business by pursuing and catalyzing new market opportunities where the emerging edge cloud and mobile computing meet.
Continue readingIndustry Insight: The State of Smart Transportation
Smart transportation is closely tied with smart city initiatives. What happens when vehicle travels from a smart city to one that might not be so smart? Will autonomous vehicles bridge the intelligent transportation divide, or will autonomous vehicles rely on a smart infrastructure to support functions critical to improving public safety, traffic efficiency, and sustainability?
neXt Curve is joined by Bill Pugh, co-founder and managing partner of Smart Connections Consulting LLC to explore the following topics:
- Why does transportation need to be smarter? – Bill and Leonard discuss the motivations and the objectives that the auto industries and municipalities have for smart transportation. What is the carrot that is getting parties excited, or is the carrot not big enough to bring about the digital transformation we have all been expecting in some form?
- What are the challenges facing smart transportation? – Smart transportation has taken a patently vehicle-centric focus as of late with excitement about self-driving cars that will function as robotaxi’s that will chauffeur us around. But progress for smart transportation solutions that could benefit the broader driving community have been nothing short of stagnant with only a few pilot project of any notice. What are the persistent challenges that get in the way of the smart future of transportation?
- What kind of mindset change is need to make progress? – Do we have the right attitude about smart transportation? Could it be that we don’t think broadly enough about the benefits of modernizing our transportation system and how we will make that modernization happen?
- What can the tech and “IoT” industry do to deliver the promise? – Bill and Leonard brainstorm what the tech community and industry can do to make IoT a thing for transportation. We discuss the approaches that can be considered to get investments and commitments to stick given short-term political and administrative agendas of our cities, counties, states, an dour nation.

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IAA Mobility 2021: Key Takeaways
event featured the heavyweights in the semiconductor industry on the main stage of IAA Mobility, most notably, Cristano Amon, CEO of Qualcomm and Pat Gelsinger, CEO of Intel. Both business leaders presented back-to-back keynotes that offered common and divergent perspectives on the role of silicon and connectivity in the future of the car. Collectively, Cristano and Pat outlined an ambitious future for the car founded on the projection of digital technologies of the data center and smartphone on the automobile.
Continue readingThe Future of Transportation: A System of Systems Perspective on the Future of the Car
the future of transportation. What do we mean by that? It is not to say that the car is the future of transportation, rather the future of the car will depend on how the broader transportation system digitally evolves. The digital transformation of transportation infrastructure will have profound influence on how and how quickly the digitalization of the car will play out as will the stitching between the intelligent car and the intelligent infrastructure – 5G connectivity.
Continue readingFostering the 5G Innovation Economy for the European Auto Industry
5G is about vertical industries. It promises to connect things beyond the smartphone in new ways and at a scale that was not possible with previous generations of mobile wireless technology. The auto industry has long been considered one of the frontier industries ripe for 5G reinvention. On May 19th, France Brevets hosted a virtual conference to discuss the importance of incubating a healthy regional innovation economy. The goal? To foster technological leadership in transformative technologies such as 5G to help secure a competitive future for the European auto industry.
Continue readingCES 2019: Key Takeaways
neXt Curve attended the largest consumer electronics trade show on the planet with over 180,000 in attendance to identify the deeper technology and market trends that are driving the rapid evolution of our digital lives and are expressed in the new digitally-enabled consumer applications from smart home, 3D sound to emotionally-aware robots.
Continue readingWorld Internet Conference 2018: Key Takeaways
neXt Curve attended the World Internet Conference 2018 in Wuzhen, China’s premier conference on the digital economy and policy, which took place from the 6th to the 9th of November. This year’s conference was sparsely attended by U.S. tech giants such as Apple and Google, but their absence didn’t put a damper on the global scope of the event and its continued promotion of the Digital Silk Road.
Continue readingCES 2018: Key Takeaways
neXt Curve attended the largest consumer electronics trade show on the planet with over 180,000 in attendance to identify the deeper technology and market trends that are underlying the rapid evolution of our digital lives and are expressed in the new digitally-enabled consumer applications from smart homes, virtually reality to connected vehicles.
Continue readingThe Future of The Car: Before We Give Up Our Steering Wheels
Autonomous/connected vehicles are all the rage at the moment with many industry pundits asserting and forecasting that self-driving cars will fill our streets in the near future. But there are some important realities that need to be considered before we can kiss our steering wheels goodbye.
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