Tradeshows have been in full swing since CES at the beginning of January, and this week MWC was hosted in Barcelona. MWC is the place to be if you are within the mobile or technology industries; each year it showcases the most innovative and cutting edge technology from over 2,400 leading companies. This year has been no different with a turnout of over 107,000 attendees from across 205 countries, illustrating the upcoming trends and highlights from the industry.
5G
Rumours of 5G have been flying around for the past year, and all large companies are working quickly to accelerate the release of this super speed network. CES set the rumours straight and confirmed the future of 5G when big players in the industry such as Qualcomm, Intel, Samsung and Cisco stated that they are all investing heavily in research and development within this field. The super speed 5G is 100x faster than the current 4G network, and the next generation network has the potential to have a huge impact in the development of self-driving cars, virtual reality, smart cities and health care. The power of this network was demonstrated at MWC when a doctor used 5G to direct surgery live from a stage; the super-fast technology meant the doctor could provide instant advice and guidance to his team who was located 3 miles away.
Foldable Smart Phones
Foldable smartphones took centre stage at MWC; it was the talk of the show. This new technology marks one of the largest changes in the smartphone industry, and has left everyone split, with a lot of consumers in two minds whether this is the future of our smartphones. However, there is no denying that it has certainly stolen the limelight over the past few weeks with Samsung and Huawei being the first to release their foldable smartphones. It is worth noting though one of these will set you back £1,700…However, the current question on consumers’ minds, is it worth it?
Smart Cities
Smart cities were highlighted at CES in January as an indication as to what the future of our cities will look like. The development of 5G is to play a huge role in the evolution of smart cities. The blossoming of smart cities is set to have a huge benefit on creating more efficient cities, improving sustainability, creating economic development, and improving the quality of life for those living and working in the city. Intel is taking steps to kickstart this trend, they have been researching providing network-in-a-box offering that integrates its Movidius AI accelerator, multi-access edge computing, and combines 5G technology to have an all in one smart city solution.
AR and VR
Companies are quickly recognising this as an important industry to get involved in; it is predicted that in 2022 augmented reality and virtual reality will be a $33.9 billion industry. At MWC Qualcomm was promoting a platform for smartphone powered VR and AR headsets, which rely on the powerful 5G network, other companies also promoting AR and VR headsets include Acer, LG, and Sprint.
MWC has provided us with an outline of the technologies which we are set to see in 2019, 5G has been the hot topic this year, though there is still no clear date of when this cutting edge technology is set to be released. Samsung and Huawei stole the stage with their releases of foldable smartphones, no doubt other companies will soon be jumping on the bandwagon and creating their very own version of the foldable phone. We are looking forward to NAB in Las Vegas next month, our general manager Phil Evans will be attending, if you would like to book a meeting, please email info@dtvkit.org.