Innovation Through Acceleration: How 5G Will Change Mobile Landscape

Pushed by technological progress, the pace of modern life has accelerated thousands of times. People are always in motion, literally. Their demand for high-tech solutions grows exponentially, and telecommunication is no exception. We need fast and quality access to data anytime and anywhere.

The rapid development of 5G technology is what we need to meet the ever-growing demands rising across various business domains, as it hallmarks the onset of a new era of mobile broadband.

Contrary to popular belief, 5G is not a modified version of 4G. It is an entirely new technology that will change our lives dramatically.

In fact, 5G will significantly expand the existing 4G capabilities. It will not only help improve the quality of mobile communication but will change the mobile application market in general.

5G is already referred to as a network capable of transmitting data at speeds of up to 20 Gbps. Just for comparison, the maximum speed of 4G today is 150 Mbps, which is 133 times slower!

Crowd expert says that 5G is the missing step required for the development of a long list of technologies of the future including IoT, data analytics, blockchain, semantic Web, artificial intelligence, etc.

Thanks to 5G, we will be able to watch "spherical videos" and online broadcasts in Ultra HD quality. The quality and accuracy of color rendering will be improved significantly.

Another essential factor enabled by 5G is connection stability. It's a shame to be disconnected continuously during an important video conference, isn’t it? 5G promises to remove such shortcomings.

Besides, 5G will provide new opportunities for the media business and will many types of users happy, from gamers and cybersports fans to fans of live broadcasting to IoT users, etc.

5G Adoption Forecasts

Although 5G has yet to gain momentum, catch on and go mainstream, its adoption is inevitable due to huge demand from nearly all verticals and industries.

"75% of entrepreneurs are already willing to pay for the opportunity to use the 5G network," Gartner

According to Umbrella IT, 5G will be used by 25 million people all over the world in 2021; this number will most likely increase to 1,2 billion users in 2025.

Mainstream adoption of 5G will give birth to a whole new set of mobile services and business models to benefit any business. On the other hand, it may leave many countries and industries behind tech evolution if they fail to invest in and develop new and optimize existing digital solutions for the 5G realms.

How 5G Will Affect Mobile Application Development Across Domains

5G and IoT

There is no doubt that the Internet of Things (IoT) will be most affected by 5G tech developments. 5G will bring ultra-low latency (less than one millisecond) and extended battery life to industries that leverage smart and connected solutions.

According to Gartner, 57% of businesses admit IoT is the most promising niche for 5G adoption.

5G will make it possible to work with those IoT areas where the difference between 40 milliseconds and four milliseconds is crucial. One such vivid example of effective 5G use is the drone industry. With the instantaneous exchange of information between driverless vehicles, the risk of an accident will be reduced to zero.

5G and Smart cities

5G adoption will not be limited to the IoT space only. It will enable the creation of smart houses and entire "smart cities" equipped with billions of sensors and interconnected devices.

Smart cities will become a unique platform for business development where millions of various mobile applications will be synchronized in order to reduce crime, create real-time disaster alerts, prevent pollution, etc.

As 5G will enable enhanced connectivity, it’ll create new collaboration opportunities for both competing and non-competing businesses.

Ultra HD broadcast

Everybody loves positive emotions, but not everyone has a chance to attend events that give good vibes and inspiration.

Thanks to mobile multimedia applications running on 5G, you can watch your favorite soccer matches or concerts remotely from anywhere.

A 360-degree broadcast, combined with augmented reality and 5G technology, will allow us to see the world more versatilely. Excursions to historic sites, educational films about the structure of atoms or the universe, and the broadcasting of surgical operations to educate young professionals... the list goes on and on.

Manufacturing and logistics

Using mobile applications based on 5G will help improve the remote control of machines in complex industries. The industrial automation systems will be improved and become more stable, which will result in overall product quality.

Combined with 3D printing and robotics, 5G technology will allow you to construct highly-efficient smart plants and reduce the risks for people working in hazardous industries.

Augmented reality (AR)

5G will unlock the potential of AR. Users will be able to experience the full-presence effect and enjoy the benefits of using the full range of AR-based mobile applications, from education to entertainment.

Tactile Internet will cease to be a fantasy and become a reality we can only imagine nowadays. Driven by 5G, AR will allow mastering various hard and soft skills without going to a brick-and-mortar classroom.

5G will take business communication to the next technology level. Using AR, entrepreneurs will be able to experience the full immersion in a physical meeting regardless of their current location. As such, a startup from NYC will be able to literally join an important VC meeting in Seoul and pitch their product/talk to investors without spending money on business trips and accommodation. That being said, the whole world will become extremely lean after 5G goes mainstream.

Healthcare

Virtual reality (VR) technologies are already in very high demand across medicine and healthcare domains and are poised to remove critical barriers and impediments to quality healthcare provision, especially in underserved areas.

Remote medicine will play an important role in the remote monitoring of patient health. Physicians will be able to react more quickly when they receive information in real-time.

Used together with ehealth mobile applications, wearable devices will help keep more detailed records of patient conditions in certain areas, observe trends and make informed and shared decisions regarding choice of treatment.

"Extremely high data transfer speed of 5G will enable fast DNA decryption. Today, we need a 140 GB file to store information about a single genome. And speed of processing DNA is very slow. With 5G, we'll be able to decrypt DNA in less than a minute!" says Vlad Potapenko, CEO of 8allocate, a company that helps other businesses optimize their mobile solutions for 5G.

3D modeling

The emergence of mobile apps capable of creating different 3D models is another benefit of using 5G. Combining a 5G mobile application with the latest 3D printers will allow you to create higher quality 3D models of objects. Such rich-media apps will be used across an array of niches and verticals, from healthcare to real estate and beyond.

Personalized AI chatbots

Although AI-based chatbots can't completely replace a human being yet, they can help significantly improve the quality of any service and increase customer loyalty.

The symbiosis of chatbots and 5G will provide more opportunities for prompt feedback and informed decision making.

We’ve identified four key benefits of using 5G for mobile application development:

• 5G is 100x faster than 4G;
• 5G extends autonomous work of IoT/connected devices by ten times;
• 5G reduces wait time up to 1 millisecond or even less (i.e., apps will open and perform at lightning speed);
• 5G will help extend many services to remote/far areas.

Most likely, 5G technology will be implemented as a supplement to existing networks. This will result in lower energy costs. The battery will consume less power as the increase in speed will make it possible to perform almost all of the calculations on the server side (and not on the user's device).

5G technology will be a real breakthrough due to its ability to effectively adapt to the full range of requirements for new-gen applications:

• security;
• speed;
• lower battery consumption;
• reliable and continuous communication between devices.

To wrap it up, 5G is more than just a new technology; it’s a door-opener to the whole new world of opportunities that will help make our life better and more meaningful.

And how else do you believe 5G will change the way we make apps now?