Strategy Analytics attended the Huawei Product and Solutions Launch Event in London in February 2020.  The theme of the event was “5G, Bring New Value”.  Throughout the day, Huawei demonstrated how 5G can deliver value across three domains:  Industrial solutions, UHD applications (e.g. 8K video) and V2X applications.

Enhanced user experience was at the heart of the message.  In the event keynote, almost the first words uttered by Ryan Ding, Huawei Carrier Business Group President, were “4G delivers information.  5G delivers emotion”.  The implication being that Huawei is committed to delivering powerful, immersive experiences that drive user engagement and enrichment.  This could mean, for example, delivering UHD video without buffering or new immersive experiences based on AR/VR (cloud gaming, AR
fitness etc.).

Presentations throughout the day supported this theme.  Huawei promoted the benefits of its 5G infrastructure solutions to improve the user experience by providing greater network capacity and deliver extreme low energy consumption, thereby contributing to a more eco-friendly network.

However, a key challenge to the success of 5G that was highlighted throughout the day, is the ongoing search for compelling differentiated use cases.  In panel discussions, several of the invited guests talked about this current limitation and the fact that consumers are still unclear about the benefits of 5G.  Many comments were made about the need for use cases to emerge, but few suggestions were offered.  The point was made that the resolution of this challenge will likely come from innovation by new entrants to the market and that the greatest potential for 5G lies in new use cases and experiences based on IoT and AI that are still in the embryonic stages of development.

Strategy Analytics UX research team identified opportunity spaces for 5G consumer applications in 2019.  A summary of this research is available to download here.  For more information, or to discuss how we can support you in developing your 5G strategy, please contact your nearest office.