Leading global smart device brand OPPO, and world-leader in market analytics IHS Markit, jointly published their first whitepaper on intelligent connectivity at the OPPO INNO DAY 2019. The whitepaper is entitled “Intelligent Connectivity: Unleashing opportunities with the power of 5G, AI, and cloud”. The whitepaper aims to help inform audiences about the significance and value of intelligent connectivity, and enable the industry to establish a more open and collaborative understanding of the ecosystem, better informing and guiding the sustainable development of intelligent connectivity in the future.

The world is excited about the new opportunities the 5G era will bring, which the whitepaper believes will be driven by intelligent connectivity powered by AI, cloud, edge computing, and IoT. The new ecosystem of intelligent connectivity is expected to expand the market and unleash more opportunities within the industry.

With 5G deployment steadily expanding, the 5G era has arrived

After a year of implementation, 5G is now entering our lives at an accelerated pace.

The whitepaper noted that in 2019, we have witnessed the first wave of standards-based 5G commercial launches. By October 2019, 50 carriers had launched 3GPP-compliant 5G commercial services across 27 markets. In addition, 328 carriers in 109 markets were also investing in 5G.

The whitepaper also sheds light on the current 5G deployment worldwide, with large-scale deployments of over 10,000 5G NR/gNBs (which stands for New Radio /Generation Node Base Stations) occurring in countries like China and South Korea. In Australia, UK, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland, UAE, and the US, there have been small-scale tactical deployments of hundreds of 5G NR/gNBs.

A massive wave of 5G development and 5G applications will boom in China.

5G to drive accelerated integration of cloud, AI, and edge computing

5G is distinct from previous generations of cellular technologies in that it has been designed at the outset to address many different technical requirements, device form factors, applications, and audiences.

The whitepaper predicts that intelligent connectivity will rely on the collaborative efforts of AI, the cloud and edge, connectivity (including 5G), and IoT to deliver value to enterprises and consumers. This value may refer to a range of aspects including lower operational costs, access to new sources of revenue, or enhanced customer experience.

AI is in its early stages: we are currently just into the so-called “narrow” or “weak AI”. Meanwhile, 5G applications, edge computing, and cloud computing will enable the deployment of AI in more solutions, while real-life applications and use cases will evolve into a hybrid cloud-edge model that will enable powerful AI.

The whitepaper also notes that because of the intelligent connectivity between 5G, AI, cloud computing, and edge computing, companies and organizations should build more sophisticated business models as well as advocating openness, sharing and collaboration with partners for the development of new features to their solutions.

The upcoming intelligent connectivity ecosystem will unleash great potential

The development of the 5G device ecosystem has ramped up quickly across many fields.

According to the whitepaper, as of mid-November 2019, 72 vendors had announced a total of 183 5G devices, such as smartphones, indoor and outdoor CPE (customer premises equipment), robots, drones, etc. Out of the 183 5G devices, over 40 are commercially available.

According to IHS Markit forecasts, around a quarter of the 1.7 billion mobile handsets shipped globally will integrate 5G by 2023 and every two out of three smartphones will have prebuilt AI hardware and features by 2025.
Additionally, digital assistants in the form of smart speakers will continue to be in demand. The global installed base of smart speakers will rise from over 100 million this year to over 800 million in three years.

AI-capabilities will increasingly be integrated into consumer entertainment devices. For instance, AI-capable cameras, twinned with smart TVs or streaming boxes, will use facial recognition to launch personal viewing preferences and recommendations. AI will also be able to identify key moments, such as the winning goal, in a recorded sports program.

Since cloud gaming has lowered the barriers for consumers by removing hardware costs, cloud gaming and VR/AR will embrace new opportunities, allowing users to access games whenever and wherever they want with smaller devices. The latency is also reduced to enable the comprehensive development of VR/AR games, creating a global market that was worth over $100 billion in 2018 according to the whitepaper.

In the era of intelligent connectivity, there will also be many use cases and opportunities for IoT in video surveillance, autonomous driving and industrial automation.

The whitepaper believes that the rise of new devices has not demised the key role smartphones play in the life of consumers. Not only do they play a central role in the consumer IoT space, but they also serve as a gateway for wearables such as smartwatches and health monitors, controllers/receivers, and a display for data and video from other devices.

These ever-evolving technologies will work together to create new, immersive experiences for consumers, address challenges and create opportunities for enterprises and the industry, by realizing true intelligent connectivity that will open up extensive opportunities for the top global hardware and Internet companies such as OPPO.