Android firsts, brought to you by Qualcomm

If you spend just one minute looking at each Android device available today, well, let’s just say you probably don’t have enough time in your busy day.

Qualcomm Technologies has enabled some notable world firsts on Android, and some remain Android exclusives to this day. Although by no means comprehensive, here are a number of technologies and respective mobile devices where they appeared that paved the way for others to come.

Inventions from Qualcomm lay the foundation for so many technologies and experiences we value in our smartphones today — on Android and other platforms. One great example is Gigabit LTE. The latest Gigabit LTE-enabled Android smartphones can download content from mobile networks 135 times faster than the first Android phones could nine years ago. Meanwhile, we’ve been inventing foundational technologies for Gigabit LTE for well over a decade.

Our model is to make our inventions available as broadly as possible to the mobile industry through our licensing program, from start-ups to global companies.

From augmented reality to Gigabit LTE and Ultra HD video on mobile, we tackle the difficult system-level problems early on to create a low-barrier of entry for the entire mobile ecosystem, established and incumbent companies alike. For example Qualcomm improveTouch has helped make waterproof displays and near bezel-less smartphones available. This touch controller can drive premium, high-resolution OLEDs, but also offers advanced water rejection and multitouch while wet, so it can track multiple fingers accurately on a wet screen. Qualcomm improveTouch can also support displays that have unique shapes with curves — which enabled Essential Products to create a smartphone with a near bezel-less display.

We then integrate and implement many of these technologies in our world-class mobile platforms, collaborating with, and enabling, countless companies across the globe to commercialize our inventions at both speed and scale, and with a choice for consumers on price points and features.

We’ve worked closely with Google and leading smartphone OEMs all along, including Samsung, LG, HTC and Motorola/Lenovo. We also work closely with new entrants so that they can become tomorrow’s leaders. China-based Oppo and Vivo were new entrants to the market only a few years ago, but now have become two of the top five smartphone companies in the world. The vibrant Android ecosystem is built on Qualcomm inventions and our industry enabling horizontal model.

We’re working on inventing the next set of world firsts and collaborating with partners across the industry to get them into your hands, on a band around your wrist, or with lenses for over your eyes. Here’s to the next generation of mobile device start-ups and innovators, competing to bring you the next wave of class-leading Android devices. As before, they’ll continue to pave the way for others to come.