Rita El Khoury / Android Authority
TL;DR Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon says early 6G devices could arrive “as early as 2028.”
Amon and others expect 6G to play a key role in a future where AI is deeply ingrained in daily life.
We’ve come to expect 5G connectivity and the high data speeds that it enables as standard features over the past few years. Naturally, that means we’re also looking forward to the next big thing in mobile connectivity: 6G. Yesterday, at the company’s annual Snapdragon Summit in Maui, Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon gave a bit of a status update on that front: early 6G devices are indeed in the works, but we’ve still got a considerable wait ahead of us.
Talking up Qualcomm’s 6G plans on stage, Amon told a Snapdragon Summit audience that we can expect 6G-equipped “pre-commercial devices coming as early as 2028.” That’s some serious hedging; “pre-commercial devices” are, of course, not meant for general consumers, and Amon’s “as early as” framing leaves wiggle room for those cutting edge devices to land after 2028, as well.
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Amon’s declaration came in the context of a vision for the near future where AI agents are a crucial part of our daily lives, upending the way we currently use our connected devices. As Amon tells it, phones, laptops, cars, smart glasses, earbuds, and more will have a direct line of communication with these AI agents — facilitated by 6G connectivity.
Qualcomm’s not alone in this line of thinking. Research firm Nokia Bell Labs has said that in the coming 6G era, “new man-machine interfaces” controlled by voice and gesture input will gradually replace more traditional inputs, like typing on touchscreens. That’s easy to read as conjecture, but we’ll have to see how it’s going come 2028.
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