Qualcomm’s annual partner event earlier this week in Hong Kong featured nearly 100 speakers, with well over 1,000 attendees. Mobile World Live highlights some of the most noteworthy statements over the three-day event.

End of 3G?
– China Telecom EVP Tongqing Gao told the audience that 4G has experienced a very fast conversion from 3G, and towards the end of next year it will be the end of 3G in China, with most 3G subscribers turning into 4G subscribers. At the end of August, 49 per cent of China Telecom’s 210 million customers were on 4G.

– NTT Docomo CTO Seizo Onoe said less than 3 per cent data traffic is now generated on its 3G network. Its Premium 4G network offers peak download speeds of 370Mb/s, which it plans to boost to 500Mb/s by end of its fiscal year. As Mobile World Live has previously reported, it aims to raise that to more than 1Gb/s before 5G is launched.

Data explosion
– Rober Gurnani, Verizon’s chief information and technology architect, said its customers generate the same amount of traffic in one hour as they did in one week ten years ago, and he expects that rapid growth to continue.

– Microsoft corporate VP Nagraj Kashyap said startups’ business models are now based on the expectation that the rapid advances in mobile connectivity will continue, which certainly puts a significant amount of pressure on network operators and their equipment providers.

Smartphone opportunities
– Not long ago mobile phones were mainly used for calling or messaging (text or email). OnePlus CEO Pete Lau said the camera is now the most-used function on a smartphone, which creates an opportunity for vendors and operators to exploit that trend.

– Terry Steger, Accenture Strategy MD, said the fastest growth in the next three to five years will come in the mid-tier smartphone market, with a price point of $100 to $300.

LAA potential
– Qualcomm director of business development Tony Lutz noted that Licensed-Assisted Access (LAA) levels the playing field for operators that don’t have the spectrum resources of many of the larger players.

Connected car saturation
– Ken-ichi Murate, Toyota’s group manager of connect strategy and planning, said the automaker predicts that 68 per cent of cars globally will be connected vehicles by 2025, and in some markets like the US it will be close to 100 per cent.