{"id":1822,"date":"2019-02-25T09:11:53","date_gmt":"2019-02-25T09:11:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tantraanalyst.com\/insights\/?p=1822"},"modified":"2021-08-19T19:03:38","modified_gmt":"2021-08-19T19:03:38","slug":"5g-vendors-step-on-the-gas-at-mwc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tantraanalyst.com\/ta\/5g-vendors-step-on-the-gas-at-mwc\/","title":{"rendered":"5G Vendors Step on the Gas at MWC"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
EE Times News, February 25, 2019<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
From the very beginning, when the standardization was advanced by almost a year, 5G has always been on the accelerated path. The acceleration is visible across the board\u2013in prototyping, operator adoption, deployment and OEM adoption.<\/span><\/h6>\n
The somewhat surprising icing on the acceleration cake was Qualcomm\u2019s set of\u00a0far-reaching announcements<\/a><\/span>\u00a0made on the first day of Mobile World Congress 2019. They show how the ecosystem is preparing to accelerate the spread of 5G across multiple dimensions, different device categories, price points, market segments, industries, and geographies.<\/span><\/h6>\n
In early March 2017, exactly two years ago, 3GPP decided to\u00a0advance the 5G timelines<\/a><\/span>\u00a0to enable commercialization in 2019, instead of the plan of record of 2020. One year of acceleration is a huge deal in standards timeline. The ecosystem support for that advancement set the tone for all that ensued in the next two years.<\/span><\/h6>\n
The 5G technology development started back in 2014, if not earlier. The early prototypes were demonstrated in 2015, and the first ever 5G-NR modem solution,\u00a0Qualcomm\u2019s X50<\/a><\/span>, was announced toward the end of 2016.<\/span><\/h6>\n
Usually, the chipsets are not announced this early, more than three years ahead of actual commercial devices.\u00a0 Intel, which was very late with its LTE chipset, couldn\u2019t resist the temptation and joined the acceleration bandwagon by announcing its now defunct\u00a0XMM8060 5G-NR chipset.<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/h6>\n
Defying norms, more than 20 OEMs publically announced their plans to build 5G products in 2018, more than a year before commercialization. Samsung, who is only next to Apple in a penchant for secrecy, announced\u00a0its plans for a 5G smartphone<\/a><\/span>\u00a0months before commercialization, something unheard of until now.<\/span><\/h6>\n
Compared to 5G, 4G commercialization proceeded at a snail\u2019s pace with only a couple of operators with very few devices when LTE was launched. Contrast that with 5G where announcements of Samsung\u2019s\u00a0Galaxy S10 5G<\/a><\/span>,\u00a0Oppo<\/a><\/span>,\u00a0Xiaomi Mi Mix 3<\/a><\/span>,\u00a0LGV50 ThinQ<\/a><\/span>\u00a0have created the groundswell with 25+ devices still to come.<\/span><\/h6>\n
More than 20 operators have committed to launching 5G. Another huge difference is in the time it took 4G to reach China and other markets compared to what\u2019s expected for 5G.\u00a0<\/span><\/h6>\n
Traditionally, the evolution of the cellular baseband has been from a thin modem, followed by an integrated SoC in the subsequent year. Even before the first devices with its first-generation 5G modem are available, Qualcomm announced the next-gen Snapdragon\u00a0X55 modem<\/a><\/span>.<\/span><\/h6>\n
An announcement on February 25 of an integrated\u00a0Snapdragon SoC<\/a><\/span>\u00a0shows Qualcomm\u2019s drive to spread 5G smartphones. Samsung\u2019s commitment for this SoC this early shows their confidence in Qualcomm\u2019s ability to deliver. Announcing the third-generation solution, even before first generation products are on the shelf is almost unbelievable for the longtime observers of the cellular industry.<\/span><\/h6>\n
Qualcomm\u2019s announcements of Snapdragon 5G platforms for PCs and cars shows it will address adjacent markets at the same time as smartphones, not waiting as it did with 4G. A research collaboration with Bosch will put Qualcomm on the path to address industrial IoT opportunities that will open up as 5G evolves.<\/span><\/h6>\n
Qualcomm clearly is using 5G and its capabilities as a linchpin for its expansion strategy. Whoever thought 5G was hype that will deflate quickly will have doubts now.<\/span><\/h6>\n
With so much development by and around Qualcomm and the Android ecosystem, it\u2019s worth noting Apple\u2019s first 5G phone is more than a year away. Its sole baseband supplier Intel is almost a year away with its first commercial-grade 5G modem. I wonder if Apple will rethink its strategy.<\/span><\/h6>\n
Perhaps the bigger question now is whether 5G uptake will accelerate with the same vigor shown by vendors. I aim to observe that and report back.<\/span><\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From the very beginning, when the standardization was advanced by almost a year, 5G has always been on the accelerated path. The acceleration is visible across the board\u2013in prototyping, operator adoption, deployment and OEM adoption. The somewhat surprising icing on the acceleration cake was Qualcomm\u2019s set of\u00a0far-reaching announcements\u00a0made on the first day of Mobile World […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2038,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"mc4wp_mailchimp_campaign":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-image","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-5g","post_format-post-format-image"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tantraanalyst.com\/ta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tantraanalyst.com\/ta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tantraanalyst.com\/ta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tantraanalyst.com\/ta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tantraanalyst.com\/ta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1822"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tantraanalyst.com\/ta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1822\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tantraanalyst.com\/ta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tantraanalyst.com\/ta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tantraanalyst.com\/ta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tantraanalyst.com\/ta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}