Qualcomm premiered this week a series of LTE Advanced modems for Windows 10 devices with big screens, like notebooks, tablets and 2 in 1 machines. The list includes the X12, X10, X8, X7 and X5 modems, that offer from 150 Mbps download speeds up to 600 Mbps.
These products are compatible natively with the Mobile Broadband Interface Model (MBIM) from Windows 10 and they’re meant to provide a similar mobility experience on PCs compared to the smartphone one. Embedded LTE has become a big deal and over the past year more 4G/3G connected tablets have been sold compared to previous years, as far as I know.
The chipmaker is the only big name in the business that optimized its architecture for Windows Phone, Lumia devices and more. Qualcomm’s market share in the WiFi chips for portable devices isn’t that big, so they’re banking on the LTE Advanced trend. Working with Microsoft means they’ll have a foothold in the future generation of Win 10 devices, that will generate massive sales over the next months.
The LTE Category 12 X12 modem offers speeds of up to 600 Mbps even through special 3x downlink carrier aggregation.
