Clyde Bentley, 2009-2010 FellowThe biggest mobile phone industry gathering in the world starts Monday, but Qualcomm got a jump on the media crowd today by pre-announcing a new technology that could have far-reaching impact on the news industry.
When the Mobile World Congress officially opens in Barcelona, Qualcomm will unveil its FlashLinq technology that promises neighborhood-level mobile networking without the aid of cell towers and central servers. The system will use licensed bandwidth from a mobile service provider. Instead of going through the system’s servers and towers, however, FlashLinq-enabled phones will be able to recognize each other up to a kilometer away.
On one level, FlashLinq opens the door for neighborhood-level social networking, news distribution and very local advertising. It does not stop there, however, FlashLinq uses a new peer-to-peer standard called Wi-Fi Direct that many see as the key to machine-to-machine mobile. Samsung already uses that protocol for a camera that can use your mobile phone as a remote viewfinder. Others, however, eagerly await a fleshed-out system that turns vending machines into robots who can not only ask their customers’ phones for money, but can dial back to the warehouse when they need to be restocked. Taken to an extreme, this “M2M” commerce could radically change the retail industry.
Qualcomm and the Mobile World Congress share a reputation for size. Qualcomm is the world’s biggest supplier of chips, especially those that power mobile phones. The Mobile World Congress is enormous in its own right — more than 50,000 attendees jostling through nearly 500,000 square feet of display space. It is traditionally the venue for the mobile world’s biggest announcements and product debuts.
I attended last year, but next week you’ll get the MWC scoop from my colleague Will Sullivan. Stay tuned.
Comments
Add Your Comment