LIVE FROM CES 2017, LAS VEGAS: While it’s been all about AI robots, cars and VR at this year’s event, Qualcomm CEO Steve Mollenkopf put the focus on a mobile technology that will bring such innovations to life, proclaiming that 5G will be the most important revolution “since electricity”.

Speaking in today’s keynote, Mollenkopf said the company, after powering  smartphones with its mobile processing chips for both 3G and 4G, is now readying itself to capitalise on 5G, and offered some bold predictions on what it will mean for the global economy.

According to a Qualcomm commissioned report, the company expects 5G to create up to 22 million jobs and produce $12 trillion in 5G-enabled goods and services by 2035, bringing new business opportunities across new and existing industries.

Mollenkopf added that 8.3 billion smartphones will ship between 2016 and 2020, the equivalent of 50 smartphones per second.

His speech centred around three key areas he predicts will take off with 5G networks; VR, autonomous driving and the internet of things, all enabling a number of real-life benefits through mission critical connectivity.

“5G will be the tipping point and build on the foundations that have already been laid by LTE,” he said. “It will be the intelligence to create new things. 5G will make it possible to trust mobile when failure is not an option.”

Snapdragon 835
The company again also talked up its upcoming mobile processor, the Snapdragon 835, which it unveiled earlier this week at CES. It is designed to power AR and VR, as well as offer a better smartphone performance.

Mollenkopf said the capabilities of the chip, which is miniscule in size and weight, is an indication that “mobile, not the PC, is now leading the way with innovation”.