At the GSMA’s China Week this year, stakeholders from the technology, media and telecommunications industry met in Beijing to engage and debate, and to reflect on key takeaways from MWC19 Barcelona.

Though I was unable to attend in person, the event also marked the culmination of a recent project of mine, with the launch of GSMA Intelligence’s (GSMAi) Mobile Economy China 2019 report. Here, we discuss major issues for the country’s broad mobile ecosystem, including operator financials; 5G; e-commerce; blockchain; and AI.

Mobile consumers have helped create a huge online marketplace
Chinese mobile users are enthusiastic social networkers and many are active on IP-based messaging apps. Tencent’s WeChat is now used by more than 1 billion people every day. China is also home to some of the most avid participants in e-commerce globally: the latest GSMAi Consumer Survey shows 69 per cent of smartphone owners use their devices to purchase goods or services online every month, with an additional 16 per cent doing so less frequently.

More significant, however, is how the intrinsic link between consumerism and the smartphone has established China as a contactless superpower. The main mobile apps are typically multipurpose platforms, offering travel booking and gaming, and incorporating digital wallet services (for example Alipay and WeChat Pay), which are now accepted in most bricks-and-mortar retailers. Some 81 per cent of smartphone owners use their devices for contactless mobile payment technology at least once per month, a substantially higher proportion than in some digitally advanced markets (see chart, below, click to enlarge).

[1]

Consequently, China has become the world’s largest market for B2C e-commerce, with a turnover of RMB1.7 trillion ($253 billion) in 2017, a 30 per cent annual growth rate. For Chinese consumers, Singles’ Day on 11 November is the year’s largest online shopping day, with sales valued at more than Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined.

It was adopted first by Alibaba in 2009, which racked up RMB213.5 billion on its e-commerce platform on the day in 2018.

Looking ahead, mobile data traffic growth will support greater use of online payment platforms and further development of the Chinese digital commerce market. In particular, growing smartphone adoption in rural areas and the extension of 4G services to the most remote communities will see more transactions conducted here, while also delivering benefits for social, economic and financial inclusion.

Wireless broadband connectivity enables the digitalisation of sectors, which can lead to increased efficiency and productivity, and positive knock-on effects for the wider economy.

Targeting AI dominance by 2030
With IP-based communication, social networking and e-commerce prominent features of consumers’ mobile experience, the government’s focus is elsewhere. It is aiming to weave AI into the fabric of Chinese society, which it views as a strategically important technology for reinvigorating traditional industries and for future national prosperity. In 2017, China published its three-stage Next Generation Artificial Intelligence Development Plan, which recognises the need to first achieve parity with the US. The second phase focuses on formulating legislation and making breakthrough applications of AI in various sectors by 2025, after which China is aiming to achieve global AI leadership during the third five-year period.

In light of this initiative, China’s tech companies are recruiting and investing heavily in AI. Consider just a few high-profile examples:
– Baidu is looking to develop and commercialise AI across several verticals, for example, the Apollo project for autonomous vehicles.
– Through the Damo Academy, its R&D arm, Alibaba is also working to produce its first in-house AI chips and quantum processors.
– One of Tencent’s major AI priorities is healthcare, where it is using data to help train AI algorithms for the development of virtual healthcare assistants.

Chinese mobile operators are also recognising AI’s strategic importance for future business and digital transformation, as well as driving autonomous and intelligent networks. China Mobile and Nokia are researching the use of AI and machine learning for 5G network security and reliability. China Telecom is working with Nokia and Intel to develop an AI-supported cloud network for the delivery of mass-market services with extremely low latency, while China Unicom is serving as deputy directing unit of the AI Industry Development Alliance of China.

The government hopes these investments and partnerships will combine to create a domestic industry worth RMB1 trillion by 2030. However, as applications of AI multiply and the technology matures, potential pitfalls have emerged. Facial recognition is raising questions around privacy and surveillance, while there are challenges to determining the liability and responsibilities of people and algorithms in self-driving cars.

These concerns are not unique to China and will require all countries to engage with AI’s ethical dimension, an area where the European Union is already making progress. Given that the impact of AI will be felt around the world, it is incumbent on all members of the global mobile ecosystem to coordinate and collaborate to embed the right values and governance framework at the centre of the AI debate.

 – James Robinson – Senior Analyst, GSMA Intelligence

The editorial views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and will not necessarily reflect the views of the GSMA, its Members or Associate Members.

[1] https://www.mobileworldlive.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Mar27_GSMAiBlog_chart.png

At the GSMA’s China Week this year, stakeholders from the technology, media and telecommunications industry met in Beijing to engage and debate, and to reflect on key takeaways from MWC19 Barcelona.

Though I was unable to attend in person, the event also marked the culmination of a recent project of mine, with the launch of GSMA Intelligence’s (GSMAi) Mobile Economy China 2019 report. Here, we discuss major issues for the country’s broad mobile ecosystem, including operator financials; 5G; e-commerce; blockchain; and AI.

Mobile consumers have helped create a huge online marketplace
Chinese mobile users are enthusiastic social networkers and many are active on IP-based messaging apps. Tencent’s WeChat is now used by more than 1 billion people every day. China is also home to some of the most avid participants in e-commerce globally: the latest GSMAi Consumer Survey shows 69 per cent of smartphone owners use their devices to purchase goods or services online every month, with an additional 16 per cent doing so less frequently.

More significant, however, is how the intrinsic link between consumerism and the smartphone has established China as a contactless superpower. The main mobile apps are typically multipurpose platforms, offering travel booking and gaming, and incorporating digital wallet services (for example Alipay and WeChat Pay), which are now accepted in most bricks-and-mortar retailers. Some 81 per cent of smartphone owners use their devices for contactless mobile payment technology at least once per month, a substantially higher proportion than in some digitally advanced markets (see chart, below, click to enlarge).

[1]

Consequently, China has become the world’s largest market for B2C e-commerce, with a turnover of RMB1.7 trillion ($253 billion) in 2017, a 30 per cent annual growth rate. For Chinese consumers, Singles’ Day on 11 November is the year’s largest online shopping day, with sales valued at more than Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined.

It was adopted first by Alibaba in 2009, which racked up RMB213.5 billion on its e-commerce platform on the day in 2018.

Looking ahead, mobile data traffic growth will support greater use of online payment platforms and further development of the Chinese digital commerce market. In particular, growing smartphone adoption in rural areas and the extension of 4G services to the most remote communities will see more transactions conducted here, while also delivering benefits for social, economic and financial inclusion.

Wireless broadband connectivity enables the digitalisation of sectors, which can lead to increased efficiency and productivity, and positive knock-on effects for the wider economy.

Targeting AI dominance by 2030
With IP-based communication, social networking and e-commerce prominent features of consumers’ mobile experience, the government’s focus is elsewhere. It is aiming to weave AI into the fabric of Chinese society, which it views as a strategically important technology for reinvigorating traditional industries and for future national prosperity. In 2017, China published its three-stage Next Generation Artificial Intelligence Development Plan, which recognises the need to first achieve parity with the US. The second phase focuses on formulating legislation and making breakthrough applications of AI in various sectors by 2025, after which China is aiming to achieve global AI leadership during the third five-year period.

In light of this initiative, China’s tech companies are recruiting and investing heavily in AI. Consider just a few high-profile examples:
– Baidu is looking to develop and commercialise AI across several verticals, for example, the Apollo project for autonomous vehicles.
– Through the Damo Academy, its R&D arm, Alibaba is also working to produce its first in-house AI chips and quantum processors.
– One of Tencent’s major AI priorities is healthcare, where it is using data to help train AI algorithms for the development of virtual healthcare assistants.

Chinese mobile operators are also recognising AI’s strategic importance for future business and digital transformation, as well as driving autonomous and intelligent networks. China Mobile and Nokia are researching the use of AI and machine learning for 5G network security and reliability. China Telecom is working with Nokia and Intel to develop an AI-supported cloud network for the delivery of mass-market services with extremely low latency, while China Unicom is serving as deputy directing unit of the AI Industry Development Alliance of China.

The government hopes these investments and partnerships will combine to create a domestic industry worth RMB1 trillion by 2030. However, as applications of AI multiply and the technology matures, potential pitfalls have emerged. Facial recognition is raising questions around privacy and surveillance, while there are challenges to determining the liability and responsibilities of people and algorithms in self-driving cars.

These concerns are not unique to China and will require all countries to engage with AI’s ethical dimension, an area where the European Union is already making progress. Given that the impact of AI will be felt around the world, it is incumbent on all members of the global mobile ecosystem to coordinate and collaborate to embed the right values and governance framework at the centre of the AI debate.

 – James Robinson – Senior Analyst, GSMA Intelligence

The editorial views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and will not necessarily reflect the views of the GSMA, its Members or Associate Members.

[1] https://www.mobileworldlive.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Mar27_GSMAiBlog_chart.png

The enterprise segment will be the principal driver of future IoT deployments. By 2025, we predict that out of a total of 25 billion IoT connection more than half will come from the enterprise/industrial sector.

This is what we have been forecasting. And this is what increasingly comes up during conversations with players in the IoT ecosystem. More important than our forecasts, though, is the fact that recent evidence suggests this is correct.

To be fair, a focus on the enterprise might run contrary to other views in the market. Yet as companies continue their quest to digitalise their operations, it’s only natural that the IoT market will scale…and our Enterprise IoT survey has confirmed just that. The enterprise appetite for IoT is immense: 65 per cent of enterprises have already deployed IoT solutions. And while the large ones may get the attention, some of these are very small companies. Given the fact that most companies are small, SMEs (small to medium enterprises, which include those with fewer than 250 employees, account for the vast majority of businesses, almost 95 per cent according to the OECD), we looked at enterprises with upwards of 20 employees in our survey. And, sure enough, the demand for IoT was near universal.

So let’s dig a bit more into the survey.

We wanted to understand the what’s, whys and how’s that are driving IoT adoption across enterprises. To that end, we asked IoT decision makers across eight verticals and 14 countries about all things IoT: their IoT deployment plans and timeframes; the scale of their IoT projects; their technology and vendor choices; the reasons behind their investment in IoT; key challenges, benefits and how they measure IoT success. Add to that questions around data analytics, security, and other IoT components and the result is a lot of data. Data which I am very excited about interpreting. But where to start?

That’s a good question. The easy answer is to look at our first cut of survey insights published recently, (IoT in business? The enterprise voice on the adoption choice [1]), digging into the drivers, challenges and measures of IoT success.

The better answer, however, involves the takeaways and longer-term implications for this rapidly developing market? Such as:

Small is big. The majority of IoT deployments are currently small. Even though IoT is moving beyond trials and proof-of-concept (PoC), the current size of deployments makes it feel like we’re still in a trial phase. One of the reasons for the smaller scale, is simply that smaller enterprises tend to deploy fewer devices.

We see this scaling up as the overall market matures and new capabilities emerge. Think small retail organisation currently connecting their point-of-sale (PoS) machines, adding a few security cameras, fleet management for the vans, smoke detectors et cetera…looking into the future these devices could be supplemented by automated check-outs, beacons, inventory management, and even robots. As more data is generated, collected and analysed, the application of AI/ML, in turn, will lead to new use cases and further benefits. And of course more connected devices.

Productivity tops all. Less than one in four (22 per cent) of enterprises pointed to unclear RoI as a challenge to IoT solution deployment. And this is the same for both SMEs and larger enterprises. At first glance this is surprising given this is an emerging area and a lot of people still heavily focus on RoI. Our survey results point to IoT deployments focus on low hanging fruit and targeted use cases.

For example, Ericsson’s Panda Nanjing factory (its largest industrial factory involved in the manufacture of its radio products) deployed IoT to automate production, resulting in savings from increased efficiency, a reduction in maintenance costs and increased flexibility in product line design. The first year provided a 50 per cent return on investment, while breakeven is projected in less than two years. This is reflected in our survey results: increased productivity is one of the key drivers of IoT adoption and success is measured through cost saving/process efficiency. Beyond that IoT creates additional opportunities for companies: tailored products and or services; better insights; and improved business processes to name but a few.

Last week, I moderated a panel session at Smart IoT London, on the topic of RoI on IoT. There’s a wider set of implications to consider when thinking about the future direction of enterprises. Whether we call it digital transformation or the Fourth Industrial Revolution, it’s clear that the very nature and DNA of enterprises is undergoing a major transformational shift (for example: moving from product- to service-based), which in turn requires both cultural and organisation change. Smaller enterprises might take longer to embark on this journey. Yet, there was a clear consensus on the panel that RoI for more transformational IoT projects will be harder to measure but the overall impact will be greater.

Challenges remain around integration, security and cost.

[2]These are felt by all enterprises, no matter the size. A lack of internal skills can then often exacerbate typical challenges around integration, maintenance and security, while the enterprise also suffers from a custom-build price premium.

So what can be done to avoid this? We saw this year at MWC19 Barcelona the theme of “making deployments simpler”, where partnerships are emerging between different industry players [3] aimed at addressing enterprise pain points around integration and security.

Being able to address the small enterprise segment is one of the key challenges for any vendor, including mobile operators. It requires a different skillset, building blocks and relationships. Unfortunately, there isn’t a one-size-fits-all recipe for success. It requires skilfully crafted partnerships across a fast emerging and developing ecosystem to deliver on small enterprise needs.

– Sylwia Kechiche – Principal Analyst, GSMA Intelligence

The editorial views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and will not necessarily reflect the views of the GSMA, its Members or Associate Members.

[1] https://www.gsmaintelligence.com/research/2019/03/iot-in-business-the-enterprise-voice-on-the-adoption-choice/738/
[2] https://www.mobileworldlive.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/ji.jpg
[3] https://www.gsmaintelligence.com/research/2019/03/mwc19-barcelona-beyond-the-headlines/736/

The opening weeks of 2019 have already delivered big announcements from the likes of Daimler, BMW, Seat and Uber. All of them seem to be betting big on smart urban mobility [1] and all aim to create the ‘platform of platforms’ in the city transport space through newly announced ventures.

A decade after Uber brought taxi booking to our mobiles, fresh traction in the space suggests a new wave of innovation might be round the corner for smart urban mobility. Just look at a handful of the announcements made in the last two months:

Daimler and BMW
The automotive behemoths, after concentrating on an ecosystem of services adjacent to mobility (parking; car rental; electric vehicle charging, taxi booking), announced at MWC19 Barcelona that they are going after the integration of all into one mobile app.
This is expected to merge 14 different services into one later in 2019.

SEAT and IBM
Unveiled the Mobility Adviser app at MWC19, which will use IBM Watson AI to help commuters make decisions about their daily transportation options, from scooters and bikes (the so-called micro mobility) to cars and public transport. The initiative is currently at a proof-of-concept stage.

Uber integrates public transit into its app in Denver
It’s no secret that Uber has been trying to integrate public transport routes and ticket purchases as well as the option to rent electric scooters into its app, while also trying to find its way more into our lives through food delivery with Uber Eats.

Here Technologies’ SoMO app
Announced in January, SoMo is an app connecting various on-demand mobility services, offering the option of sharing taxis with selected people, all on top of Here’s core mapping service. It plans to integrate more mobility service providers with SoMo and expand to new cities in the near future.

The common denominator of all these ventures? The creation of a ‘platform of platforms’ for urban mobility that allows commuters to plan their journey end-to-end and through one single app.

Can these companies really live up to their promises? Probably not. Consider the following:
Taxi sharing companies won’t make friends with cities any time soon
The Ubers of the world have been finding it really hard to operate even basic services in many cities due to protests from established competitors and conflict with local regulation over licensing of drivers. One can imagine the challenges of integrating local public transport data, especially when few cities’ transport authorities offer open APIs.
Uber’s Denver deal, to name one example, happened after seven years of Uber’s operation across cities of the world and is still at early stages. There is really no particular reason to be optimistic about the prospects of other players attempting to do the same thing across cities.
Micro mobility vendors’ future in question
Early endeavours in the micro mobility space are disheartening. Emblematic companies Bird and Lime both found it difficult to protect their assets from vandalism, so wide availability of scooters and dockless bikes in cities remain an open issue. In addition, the viability of the business model has been questioned due to small margins, hence talk about Uber buying one or the other. Therefore, even in the buyout scenario, an Uber, Lyft or Grab would have to subsidise their micro mobility business unit due to different margins.
Adjacent tasks provided over third-party apps add complexity
Bringing all urban mobility service providers under one application is not enough. The commuter is still required to perform a number of related tasks separately (mapping; navigating; planning; paying for ticket fares) which are tricky to integrate altogether in one app.
The reasons for this are that few cities offer mobile ticketing services for public transport: mobility apps are not necessarily good at mapping and rely on other apps, such as Google Maps; and payments over existing mobility apps often redirect users to PayPal or mobile banking apps.
All of these add complexity in the end-user experience and there is no development in sight that suggests their seamless integration will be achieved at scale.

Mobility through a single pane of glass is still a far away dream
Of course, integrating multiple means of transport (private, shared and public) and related services into one vendor’s app is a step in the right direction. However, the real value for commuters lies in offering this capability while integrating with all other mobility apps, even competing ones, through a single pane of glass type of platform that can operate independently of the geographic location.

If an app works in London but not in Paris or even in Bristol, is it really valuable and can it scale?

In reality, integrating all these services in one single pane of glass type of application is a far away dream due to inherent limitations in the respective companies’ partnership strategies and business models. For example, a typical European city has around five taxi booking apps and another five bike sharing services, which might not actually operate in the adjacent city or country. In other words, this is a highly fragmented market and further integration is needed.

But without any significant breakthrough, further market concentration such as the move by Daimler and BMW, can only lead to merging just parts of the mobility experience, without any visible way out of the location and multi-apps constraints.

Such a compromise which delivers an inferior user experience should not be accepted.

There is a market gap to fill: what would a breakthrough look like?
Clearly, there is a market need that aspiring entrants are so-far failing to address. Potential propositions might include a “connector” app which will interface with all competing mobility services providers and the adjacent ones, such as payments and mapping.

Of course, this “connector” app would have to be offered for free in order to incentivise companies to on-board. So the question is how to make money from that.

Interesting elements in that direction arise from Iomob, a Spanish start-up; Citymapper; and the Here Technologies’ Open Mobility Marketplace. However, more time is needed to assess their real potential in the market.

Another type of breakthrough would possibly be a solution that enables secure personal data and personal mobility preferences portability across applications. Blockchain presents some interesting attributes on digital identity, but nothing has emerged so far that would be applicable in the short-term.

Until there is a substantial shift in the market, some incremental improvement in our mobility experience is not bad at all, but it’s far from ideal.

– Christina Patsioura – senior analyst, Emerging Technologies, GSMA Intelligence

The editorial views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and will not necessarily reflect the views of the GSMA, its Members or Associate Members.

[1] https://www.gsmaintelligence.com/research/?file=d2e2f4b417a6a0f60d32b3dec01e7274&download

The opening weeks of 2019 have already delivered big announcements from the likes of Daimler, BMW, Seat and Uber. All of them seem to be betting big on smart urban mobility [1] and all aim to create the ‘platform of platforms’ in the city transport space through newly announced ventures.

A decade after Uber brought taxi booking to our mobiles, fresh traction in the space suggests a new wave of innovation might be round the corner for smart urban mobility. Just look at a handful of the announcements made in the last two months:

Daimler and BMW
The automotive behemoths, after concentrating on an ecosystem of services adjacent to mobility (parking; car rental; electric vehicle charging, taxi booking), announced at MWC19 Barcelona that they are going after the integration of all into one mobile app.
This is expected to merge 14 different services into one later in 2019.

SEAT and IBM
Unveiled the Mobility Adviser app at MWC19, which will use IBM Watson AI to help commuters make decisions about their daily transportation options, from scooters and bikes (the so-called micro mobility) to cars and public transport. The initiative is currently at a proof-of-concept stage.

Uber integrates public transit into its app in Denver
It’s no secret that Uber has been trying to integrate public transport routes and ticket purchases as well as the option to rent electric scooters into its app, while also trying to find its way more into our lives through food delivery with Uber Eats.

Here Technologies’ SoMO app
Announced in January, SoMo is an app connecting various on-demand mobility services, offering the option of sharing taxis with selected people, all on top of Here’s core mapping service. It plans to integrate more mobility service providers with SoMo and expand to new cities in the near future.

The common denominator of all these ventures? The creation of a ‘platform of platforms’ for urban mobility that allows commuters to plan their journey end-to-end and through one single app.

Can these companies really live up to their promises? Probably not. Consider the following:
Taxi sharing companies won’t make friends with cities any time soon
The Ubers of the world have been finding it really hard to operate even basic services in many cities due to protests from established competitors and conflict with local regulation over licensing of drivers. One can imagine the challenges of integrating local public transport data, especially when few cities’ transport authorities offer open APIs.
Uber’s Denver deal, to name one example, happened after seven years of Uber’s operation across cities of the world and is still at early stages. There is really no particular reason to be optimistic about the prospects of other players attempting to do the same thing across cities.
Micro mobility vendors’ future in question
Early endeavours in the micro mobility space are disheartening. Emblematic companies Bird and Lime both found it difficult to protect their assets from vandalism, so wide availability of scooters and dockless bikes in cities remain an open issue. In addition, the viability of the business model has been questioned due to small margins, hence talk about Uber buying one or the other. Therefore, even in the buyout scenario, an Uber, Lyft or Grab would have to subsidise their micro mobility business unit due to different margins.
Adjacent tasks provided over third-party apps add complexity
Bringing all urban mobility service providers under one application is not enough. The commuter is still required to perform a number of related tasks separately (mapping; navigating; planning; paying for ticket fares) which are tricky to integrate altogether in one app.
The reasons for this are that few cities offer mobile ticketing services for public transport: mobility apps are not necessarily good at mapping and rely on other apps, such as Google Maps; and payments over existing mobility apps often redirect users to PayPal or mobile banking apps.
All of these add complexity in the end-user experience and there is no development in sight that suggests their seamless integration will be achieved at scale.

Mobility through a single pane of glass is still a far away dream
Of course, integrating multiple means of transport (private, shared and public) and related services into one vendor’s app is a step in the right direction. However, the real value for commuters lies in offering this capability while integrating with all other mobility apps, even competing ones, through a single pane of glass type of platform that can operate independently of the geographic location.

If an app works in London but not in Paris or even in Bristol, is it really valuable and can it scale?

In reality, integrating all these services in one single pane of glass type of application is a far away dream due to inherent limitations in the respective companies’ partnership strategies and business models. For example, a typical European city has around five taxi booking apps and another five bike sharing services, which might not actually operate in the adjacent city or country. In other words, this is a highly fragmented market and further integration is needed.

But without any significant breakthrough, further market concentration such as the move by Daimler and BMW, can only lead to merging just parts of the mobility experience, without any visible way out of the location and multi-apps constraints.

Such a compromise which delivers an inferior user experience should not be accepted.

There is a market gap to fill: what would a breakthrough look like?
Clearly, there is a market need that aspiring entrants are so-far failing to address. Potential propositions might include a “connector” app which will interface with all competing mobility services providers and the adjacent ones, such as payments and mapping.

Of course, this “connector” app would have to be offered for free in order to incentivise companies to on-board. So the question is how to make money from that.

Interesting elements in that direction arise from Iomob, a Spanish start-up; Citymapper; and the Here Technologies’ Open Mobility Marketplace. However, more time is needed to assess their real potential in the market.

Another type of breakthrough would possibly be a solution that enables secure personal data and personal mobility preferences portability across applications. Blockchain presents some interesting attributes on digital identity, but nothing has emerged so far that would be applicable in the short-term.

Until there is a substantial shift in the market, some incremental improvement in our mobility experience is not bad at all, but it’s far from ideal.

– Christina Patsioura – senior analyst, Emerging Technologies – GSMA Intelligence

The editorial views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and will not necessarily reflect the views of the GSMA, its Members or Associate Members.

[1] https://www.gsmaintelligence.com/research/?file=d2e2f4b417a6a0f60d32b3dec01e7274&download

MWC19 Barcelona has been over for a week now. That’s enough time to look back at the big themes, little themes, and everything in between in an effort to determine what mattered and what it all means.

That’s what my team is doing in its perennial MWC wrap-up. However, building from my resolutions [1] to focus on 5G use cases, the enterprise, devices, and enabling technologies, I’ve managed to sum up the entire thing in just five pictures, saving you a lot of reading.

To be fair, any one of these topics could be the subject of its own blog and its own photo journal. That’s what happens when you pull together 109,000 attendees and more than 2,400 companies across more than 120,000 square metres of exhibition and hospitality space.

But, if you’re looking for a quick snapshot (pun intended), here’s mine.

Phones, phones, phones (5G that is)
This year, MWC brought us folding phones, phones that were mostly battery and lots of 5G phones.

It was the latter that stole the show. In part, because of the sheer number launched: everyone from Huawei, to LG, Xiaomi and ZTE announced them, alongside prototypes from Alcatel and OnePlus. In part, because it’s these devices that will enable initial 5G use cases, especially if priced cheaply enough to put into people’s hands (like Xiaomi’s Mi MIX3, pictured below).

[2]

Rakuten
The only thing that was nearly as ubiquitous as 5G phones was Rakuten. The newcomer Japanese mobile operator announced a rash of vendor selections (it’s working with Altiostar, Cisco, Intel, Mavenir, Netcracker, Nokia, and Red Hat among others).

More importantly, with the opportunity to build a network from scratch with cutting-edge innovations, Rakuten painted a way of how networks can be built in 2019, and distinguished itself as the one operator every vendor wanted to be associated with (thanks to Keith Dyer, editor of The Mobile Network, for this snap of Rakuten founder and CEO Mickey Mikitani).

[3]

Network infrastructure and supply chain diversity
Do you recognise the building pictured below? It’s the Renaissance hotel close to where MWC19 Barcelona was held. It’s also where Huawei showcased its Consulting service, which was in addition to its trio of booths covering networks, consumer and enterprise segments in the Fira Gran Via.

[4]Heading into the event it was unclear whether the network security concerns around Huawei that have been floated in some countries would be a major topic at the show. They were addressed in some form by Huawei [5], its competitors [6] and even the European Commission [7]. Where the breadth of Huawei’s presence at MWC19 mimics its reach in global telecom networks, the discussions around the vendor in Barcelona were only logical.

AR: for consumers or the enterprise?
When Microsoft launched its original Hololens mixed-reality smart glasses in 2016, there were questions of whether it was an enterprise or consumer solution.

Sure, the price ($3,000+) put it well outside the reach of most consumers, but its lineage to Kinect (an Xbox add-on) suggested incredible consumer use cases.

This year, the launch of the Hololens 2 put consumer aspirations to bed with a focus squarely on the enterprise. With GSMA Intelligence research showing that AR/VR headset adoption among consumers essentially stalled [8] in 2018, this isn’t surprising.

[9]

Gaming: the poster child for 5G?
AR headsets might be most at home in the enterprise (for now), but AR-based gaming is another subject. And, combined with 5G? Well, that’s an ideal use case for everyone’s shiny new network. At least, that was a clear message from MWC. Sprint announced work with Hatch on 5G-based cloud gaming.

Intel, Sony Pictures and Nokia demoed a Spiderman-related VR experience thanks to 5G.

[10]

Deutsche Telecom had a collaboration with MobiledgeX and Niantic (above) that was always packed with people: someone even showed up late to a meeting with me because they were too busy playing.

Putting aside questions around how 5G gaming will be marketed before 5G network coverage is ubiquitous, the allure of gaming as a 5G use case is understandable. Requiring high bandwidth and the low latencies that benefit from edge computing architectures, it ticks nearly all the 5G boxes.

– Peter Jarich – head of GSMA Intelligence

The editorial views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and will not necessarily reflect the views of the GSMA, its Members or Associate Members.

[1] https://www.mobileworldlive.com/blog/intelligence-brief-my-mwc19-barcelona-resolutions/
[2] https://www.mobileworldlive.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/GSMAi_MWC19_Blog_xiaomi.png
[3] https://www.mobileworldlive.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/GSMAi_MWC19_Blog_rakuten.jpg
[4] https://www.mobileworldlive.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/GSMAi_MWC19_Blog_renaissance.jpg
[5] https://www.mobileworldlive.com/featured-content/home-banner/huawei-boss-lays-into-us-security-scrutiny/
[6] https://www.mobileworldlive.com/featured-content/home-banner/ericsson-chief-takes-aim-at-europes-5g-policies/
[7] https://www.mobileworldlive.com/featured-content/home-banner/ec-vows-for-swift-resolution-of-5g-security-issue/
[8] https://www.gsmaintelligence.com/research/2019/01/future-of-devices-smartphones-ai-immersion-and-beyond/717/
[9] https://www.mobileworldlive.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/GSMAi_MWC19_Blog_hololens2.jpg
[10] https://www.mobileworldlive.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/GSMAi_MWC19_Blog_dt_niantic.jpg