We have been hearing about the impending arrival of 5G for a long while now. The major wireless companies have firmly set their sights on the next major update to their networks, and they all have a slightly different approach to rolling it out. It shouldn't be too surprising to see that AT&T and Verizon are both vying for that "First!" title more than anything else. Meanwhile, T-Mobile and Sprint are taking their time.
Both approaches are probably perfectly fine. After all, it ultimately matters most if the consumers are excited for the network upgrade.
And there can be no doubt here that 5G is a significant network upgrade. It's so impressive, in fact, that a lot of analysts out there believe that rumors of Apple waiting until 2020 to launch a 5G iPhone might actually harm adoption and sales for whatever phone arrives that year. Because apparently people are chomping at the bit to get 5G smartphones.
I don't think any rational person expected Apple to be one of the first smartphone companies out there to adopt a 5G device. That's just not how Apple does things. So while Samsung and OnePlus are already telling the world that their first 5G smartphones will arrive in 2019, fans of iPhones will probably be waiting another year.
I don't think that's a bad thing. Mostly because even AT&T and Verizon, who will be first with 5G networks for their subscribers, won't have any real meaningful 5G coverage until the end of 2019 and leading into 2020 they will still have a lotof ground to cover. Honestly, depending on how much 5G coverage these networks have (all of them, not just the Big Two), I wouldn't be surprised if Apple just decided to wait until 2021.
So, the networks are excited about 5G. Which is great! And smartphone manufacturers are obviously going to jump on that network upgrade in their own time. Eventually 5G will just be the standard and we'll all bask in the glory of faster speeds and more stable networks, along with infrequent stories about what comes after 5G.
But, what about right now? That's what I'm curious about. With AT&T and Verizon ready to bring 5G to market now in a very limited capacity, and with Sprint and T-Mobile moving at their own rate, are you excited about the 5G revolution? Do you plan on being an early adopter of a 5G device as soon as you can? Or are you going to wait for the rollout to be more widespread? Let me know!
Are you excited about 5G? originally posted at http://phonedog.com
No comments:
Post a Comment