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2017-03-07 07:04:57
More black rectangles made their debut in Barcelona
A SEA of sameness. A veteran of the Mobile World Congress (MWC), Ben Wood of
CCS Insight, a consultancy, was not expecting much from the mobile industry s
main trade show this week in Barcelona. As one product launch followed another,
it was easy to lose track. Whether it was LG, Huawei or Wiko, they all showed
off yet more black rectangles with slightly varying specifications.
Another reminder of the smartphone business s maturity was that the most
talked-about new device was the Nokia 3310 feature phone (pictured), an updated
version of a phone first made 17 years ago. With limited internet connectivity,
it appeals partly as a digital detox , said Arto Nummela, chief executive of
HMD Global, a Finnish startup with ex-Nokia executives which licenses the
brand.
The mobile industry is far from done in terms of genuinely new products. But
the action has moved to parts of the business that do not lend themselves to
splashy events and massive crowds (the tent erected by Huawei, a Chinese maker
of all sorts of telecoms gear, to launch its new P10 smartphone was huge, but
hundreds were still left waiting outside). Most innovation in the next ten
years will happen in the telecoms network rather than in devices, predicts John
Delaney of IDC, a market-research firm.
For now the industry is gearing up for the next generation of wireless
technology, 5G . In time for MWC the International Telecommunication Union, a
UN agency, agreed on the specifications for 5G: speeds must be up to 20
gigabits per second, enough to download a movie in a few blinks of an eye. At
the show, makers of networking gear, such as Samsung, announced products for
the first 5G networks. These are expected to launch in 2018, mostly in South
Korea and in Japan, where the new wireless technology is expected to be shown
off during the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2020.
Much still needs to be invented to make 5G a reality. Mobile carriers will, for
instance, have to rejig their networks to make them more like a computing
cloud . The idea is that network operators, just like providers of computing
power, should be able to cook up new telecoms services within seconds. One
technique is called slicing , meaning phone networks can be divided up to
serve different purposes, such as providing superfast connectivity for
self-driving cars or reliably hooking up connected devices as part of the
Internet of Things.
Mobile innovation is not doomed to be hidden in the network. But you will have
to look more closely to spot it. In Barcelona fingerprint readers appeared in
smartphones costing less than $100. If these move to even cheaper devices, it
would be a boon to people in developing countries who could easily authenticate
themselves online. Another development was that 360-degree cameras are becoming
smaller and cheaper. The matchbox-sized Giroptic iO, which attaches to a
smartphone, costs $260. Expect another dimension of selfies, which some already
call surroundies , and, inevitably, new sorts of selfie sticks.
This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the
headline "The new old thing"