Mobile Internet Solution Chosen as One of 2008's Top New Technologies

The editors of Popular Science magazine have named Qualcomm’s Gobi™ mobile Internet technology one of the top technology innovations of 2008.

Gobi received a “Best of What's New” award in the computing category. The magazine’s December 2008 issue singled out Gobi as the first built-in mobile broadband product to encode network standards in software, rather than hardware, so that “a simple download lets you switch carriers.”

The world is your hotspot
Qualcomm’s Gobi technology offers a built-in connectivity solution for notebook computers, providing users with fast, secure and convenient global access to high-speed Internet services and GPS functionality over a wide variety of 3G cellular networks. Gobi gives notebook users the freedom to connect almost anytime, from almost anywhere with cellular coverage, freeing them from having to search for Wi-Fi hotspots or carry external data cards.

Gobi technology also allows IT managers to more easily provide global connectivity to their mobile workers by stocking a single worldwide notebook solution that can be reconfigured in the field to support a wide variety of mobile operators and mobile broadband technologies –including CDMA-based EV-DO and GSM-based HSPA cellular networks.

The embedded Gobi solution includes Qualcomm’s MDM1000™ chipset, associated software and application-programming interfaces and a reference design for a software-defined configurable data modem supporting EVDO/Rev. A and HSPA/HSUPA, with full backward compatibility, as well as GPS functionality. For more information on the latest Gobi-enabled products see: http://www.GobiAnywhere.com.

Mobile Internet’s importance
“Qualcomm is honored to be recognized for its innovative Gobi technology,” said Mike Concannon, senior vice president of product management for Qualcomm CDMA Technologies. “This award reflects the growing importance that mobile and enterprise users are placing on having widely available access to the Internet.”

For the past 21 years, Popular Science’s “Best of What’s New” awards have celebrated the most important technology innovations of the year. Magazine editors evaluate thousands of products to select the top 100 innovations that are making a positive impact on life and changing our views of the future. Other 2008 award winners included the likes of Adobe’s Air™ programming tools, NASA’s Mars Lander and Europe’s $10 billion Large Hadron Collider particle accelerator.