Author | OdinAsgard
Source | HUXIU APP (ID: huxiu_com)
The year of 2019 was regarded as the first year of 5G by the general public, and "the first year of 5G" was regarded as "the top 10 new words in Chinese media in the year of 2019".
Despite this, many people still can't feel the change of 5G, so they think it's just a "faster 4G".
But as HuffPost mentioned earlier, Apple's launch of the 5G version of the iPhone 12 represents a declaration that the global cell phone business has entered the 5G era; according to Tianfeng Securities, the main equipment segment in the 5G segment has already entered the profitability stage, and will enter the large-scale commercialization stage in the coming year. From this point of view, 2021 is considered the official start of the 5G era.
Maybe people still can't feel the presence of 5G, but why does the tech world still think it's so important?
That's because next-generation network technologies like 5G, Wi-Fi 6, and the narrow Internet of Things aren't just tools that make the average consumer's web browsing faster, or Netflix streaming easier. 5G is, at heart, a new technology that's changing the architecture of the tech industry in a way that some people are calling the
New IT Era.
In the next section, I'll share the following:
Why are new networks, led by 5G, so important?
What is the new IT era?
How are overseas tech giants transforming in the new IT era?
How are Chinese tech companies embracing the new IT era?
01
Why is 5G so important?
While many people think of 5G as a publicity stunt by some companies to attract customers, outside the realm of the masses, many countries, governments, and even major multinationals have long viewed 5G as an important development strategy for the future. After all, even Donald Trump, who was still President of the United States at the time, publicly stated in 2019:
Now, we have to get 5G, and 5G is a very important thing...... It will change the way we work, learn, communicate and travel. It will make American farms more productive, American manufacturing more competitive, and American health care better and more convenient. Basically, it covers pretty much every aspect you can think of.Why does Trump think 5G is important and covers every aspect of our lives?
The tech industry has had to use new technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data, the Internet of Things, and cloud computing in recent years to realize its vision of smart cities, smart manufacturing, smart agriculture, smart logistics, smart mobility, and a number of other ways to change human life; however, it often encounters a lot of difficulties in the use of these technologies. In addition to the imperfections of the algorithms, more of these difficulties actually come from the lack of data transmission capabilities.
As we all know, AI relies heavily on big data, which, in addition to the Internet, also requires information from the real world. But to build the Internet of Things to collect real-world information, we need to deploy thousands of sensors, and in a short time, these massive sensor information, uploaded to the cloud processing.
It is clear that the huge number of machine connections and the huge amount of data necessary for AI require a huge amount of network quality; however, older 4G or Wi-Fi networks are not able to stably connect to the huge number of sensors, nor can they upload such a huge amount of IoT information back to the cloud in real time (above). The lack of network capacity has prevented the tech industry from developing more reliable smart technologies, making the vision of a smart city even more elusive.
Imagine playing Age of Empires and Civilization and trying to quickly upgrade from the industrial age to the future, only to find that the tech tree is stuck at the "network" key skill point. But the new network technologies, led by 5G, are just the thing to light up that tree.
5G not only provides greater bandwidth and faster network speeds, but more importantly enables more devices to connect to the network at the same time, as well as more reliable and faster response. As a result, we can collect massive amounts of IoT data, which can be used to constitute big data in the practical sense through cloud computing, and with real-world big data, we can make AI algorithms more reliable.
Next, I will use self-driving cars as an example to explain specifically why 5G is a key skill to light up the tech tree.
02
Taking Telematics as an example
Currently, Tesla is leading the way in self-driving car technology, but as strong as it is, Tesla has recently had to openly admit that it has failed to realize true self-driving. After all, Tesla and Uber have been involved in several serious self-driving accidents due to problems with their machine vision systems, which were unable to correctly detect hazards on the road. It's clear that even the most advanced self-driving technology is far from mature.
Why is automated driving technology still so immature after so many years of development?
In the long run, the industry believes that only Vehicle to Everything (V2X) technology can realize truly autonomous driving. The so-called Vehicle to Everything (V2X) is an Internet of Things (IoT) technology that connects cars, pedestrians, roads, traffic lights, street lamps, and even barricades to a network of objects on the road.
An illustration of the effect of the Internet of Things (IoT), with Chinese subtitles added by HuffPost. Image source: V2X Supporters for Transportation Safety.
As long as a self-driving car's machine vision can work closely with the Telematics network, it will be able to receive all kinds of information about the environment through the cloud, and grasp more, farther, faster, and yet more accurate real-time road conditions, and make more reasonable and more accurate path planning. Even if the car has poor visibility or encounters a blind spot in the machine vision, the autonomous driving system will still be able to grasp the road conditions through the Internet of Vehicles (IoV), know about the dangers that the machine vision can't know about, and avoid them as soon as possible (pictured above).
Why hasn't Telematics been able to catch on, despite its promise? There are two reasons.
First, the connectivity of current wireless networks such as Wi-Fi or 4G is too limited to consistently connect thousands of cars, pedestrians, street signs, traffic lights, and everything else on the road, and second, the response time of these older wireless networks is too slow to allow for seamless real-time transmission. Think about it: when a self-driving car enters a blind curve ahead, and a car suddenly approaches at excessive speed, what if the network information is not reliable enough for the hazard avoidance instructions to be relayed to the car's computer a second late? With that one second difference, the car might not be able to avoid the situation in time, resulting in an accident.
Thus, the massive machine communications and ultra-high-speed responsiveness of 5G are essential to the development of smart connected cars, and that's why 5G has been recognized by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) as one of the key technologies that can light up the self-driving technology tree.
Photo credit: New Communications.
In other words, with new network technologies, led by 5G, truly self-driving cars can be realized, and with truly self-driving cars, smart mobility and smart logistics can be promoted. Similarly, with these new network technologies, manufacturers will be able to realize smart manufacturing through artificial intelligence, and farmers will be able to obtain massive amounts of data to realize smart agriculture. With these intelligent visions of the industry, we can truly feel the coming of the smart city (above) and enter the new IT era.
03
What exactly is the New IT?
In other words, the so-called New IT Era is a new era of transforming old-style "information technology" into new-style "smart technology.
Maybe you think that smart technology is nothing strange, because we've long been spoiled by smartphones and adapted to all kinds of new smart features. But in the new IT era, the impact of smart technology is not just smartphones, but will further deepen to travel, industry, agriculture, logistics, education and even health care, and the face of society as a whole, with intelligent and huge changes.
For example, the biggest challenge for the logistics industry today is that, with the rise of e-commerce, orders are becoming more and more fragmented, and they often need to find small but correct shipments from a huge amount of inventory in the shortest possible time; and then combine the largest number of orders together, with the least number of shipments, to deliver them correctly to multiple locations across the country. But logistics companies in the thousands of small-volume orders for the sorting of goods, must be one by one to calculate the time of their orders, the space occupied by the goods, as well as the destination road conditions, etc.; the amount of data, by no means the average person can handle.
Automated sorting for smart logistics. Note that Amazon, Jingdong and Cainiao have introduced more advanced machine carts to sort goods. Image credit: CCTV Chinese International.
So, Amazon, DHL, Jingdong or Cainiao express companies, in recent years, active smart logistics, the purpose is to use the Internet of Things and artificial intelligence technology, in order to in the massive and fragmented small-volume orders, calculate the fastest and most correct sorting and delivery strategy, and then mechanized means, accurate and error-free implementation of these strategies (Figure above). What's more, the process must be constantly monitored, and inbound and outbound data must be recorded to ensure that the process is correct.
Similarly, manufacturing under traditional IT was simply a way to reduce costs and increase capacity to meet the basic needs of the majority in a red ocean market (below, left). But smart manufacturing under the new IT has become about how to reduce capacity and increase product variety to meet the individualized needs of a few people in a long-tail market (below right). As a result, the biggest challenge facing today's manufacturing industry, as mentioned by Tiger Sense earlier, is how to produce piecemeal, small-volume, multi-style orders at the lowest cost and with the most efficient scheduling.
However, as each production plan involves the procurement of a huge amount of raw materials, the inventory of various products, and even different processes at the same time, as long as there is a slight error or omission when scheduling, the error will be accumulated into a large number of errors in the production line, making a serious domino effect. Therefore, intelligent manufacturing is also like intelligent logistics, also rely heavily on the Internet of Things and artificial intelligence, for these small quantities, multi-style orders, calculate the most efficient production process, and through the mechanization and intelligent means, accurate line of this highly complex production scheduling.
It can be seen that the future of intelligent technology sinks into all aspects of society, and our lives will be surrounded by computing. Therefore, in the new IT era, the structure of the entire technology industry will also be a major change, and lead to a reshuffle of the technology industry.
Maybe you still think this is too much of a stretch, but you may remember that before 2010, our lives were still dominated by PCs; our cell phones were still just devices for making phone calls.
But after 2010, we stopped using our PCs as much as we used our phones, which were just for making phone calls -- what Steve Jobs called the "post-PC era.
A small iPhone, coupled with 3G network technology, has turned the entire tech industry upside down; now we're faced with even more powerful 5G, as well as a full range of IoT and AI technologies that penetrate into all aspects of our lives; can we really still think that 5G is just a gimmick?
04
A new IT architecture
How will the new IT era reshape the IT industry?
Because AI relies so heavily on big data, we need the Internet of Everything to harvest it, so everything around us will be part of the AI "computing" process. At the same time, because AI needs to deal with a lot of data, the average computer or cell phone can't cope with it, so we will have to transfer the core part of the "calculation" to the cloud, and our cell phones or computers will just be the entrance and exit point of cloud computing.
In other words, the new IT architecture will be a new computing architecture composed of IoT, big data, artificial intelligence, and cloud computing.
Verizon's case for smart manufacturing using 5G. Image credit: Verizon.
For example, when we think of a factory as a bunch of low-skilled, cheap laborers screwing away on a production line 996 times a day. But in fact, like the picture above by the U.S. Verizon support for smart factories, set up a large number of camera sensors in the production line, real-time parts of the image will be uploaded to the cloud to turn; cloud servers will be through artificial intelligence algorithms to automatically distinguish between the image of the quality of the parts is qualified, so as to improve the production line's yield rate. It can be seen that under the new IT architecture, every small part of the factory has become part of the "computing".
Nippon Telecom's (NTT) Smart Livestock campaign, photo credit: NTT Tecnocross.
What's more, when we thought that agriculture was just "turning over mud" and animal husbandry was just "picking up cow dung", there was no relationship with computing. However, as seen in the picture above, in the smart animal husbandry under the new IT architecture, each cow is equipped with sensors to record the status and behavioral data of the cow; then these data will be transmitted to the cloud to become big data, and then through artificial intelligence algorithms, to formulate a variety of strategies for the farm owner. In other words, the cattle in smart animal husbandry have themselves become part of computing.
From the above examples, it is clear that not only the parts in the factory, but also the cows on the farm, and even you reading this article in front of your computer, will be transformed into big data by the new IT architecture, and become part of the AI "computation". But even so, the parts, the cows, and you are not really computers, and only the cloud plays the role of a computer. Therefore, the 21st Century Business Review publisher Wu Bofan said:
In the past, computers were very important. But today, what really matters is computing, and it's ubiquitous.Because the changes in the new IT architecture are so dramatic, it will completely disrupt the architecture of nations, cities, and even businesses. Because of this, it will never be possible for any country or organization to enter the new IT era overnight, but rather it will require a complex and extensive process, which is why many people don't feel the 5G era coming and mistakenly think that "5G is just faster 4G".
But no matter how difficult it gets, governments and businesses still have to prepare for the new IT.
After all, even accenture, the world's largest consulting firm, has decided that new IT is "no longer an option - it's a must" (Rotating to New IT: no longer an option - it's a must). As a result, many traditional IT giants have already begun transitioning from traditional to new IT architectures and are taking advantage of the global need to reshape their IT architectures to identify new business opportunities.
05
The experience of U.S. tech giants
Microsoft, Intel, and Nvidia are three companies that have long been leaders in the traditional IT industry. Over the years, Microsoft has become the world's most profitable company through its monopoly of the Windows operating system in the PC industry, Intel has also taken advantage of its leadership position in PC processors to lie down and collect money, and Nvidia's graphics cards are a must-have for many PC gamers and multimedia users.
Unexpectedly, the mobile device revolution brought about by the iPhone permanently changed the fate of all three companies.
Initially, Microsoft took the smartphone market too lightly, thinking that it could easily beat its rivals by leveraging its PC leadership; it didn't realize that even after spending a lot of money on Nokia, it still couldn't get Windows Phone to win the hearts of its users. Intel and Nvidia also thought to repeat the PC's old ways to strong performance as a selling point, but due to the inability to meet the requirements of the smartphone in the endurance, but also in the market for mobile devices to stand firm.
The inability of these three traditional IT companies to transform themselves into mobile device companies is causing them to miss out on a huge trillion-dollar market, and more importantly, they are likely to be swallowed up by the "post-PC era. This costly lesson is forcing them to learn the hard way in 2016, and to transform early for the new networked world, and for the new IT era.
Microsoft's cloud computing platform for the restaurant industry based on 5G IoT technology. Image credit: Microsoft Hong Kong.
Microsoft, once the king of the traditional IT industry, decided to dump its cell phone business at a cheap price in 2016 and began a full-scale transformation. Unexpectedly, they were once looked down upon by the public, but they succeeded in a magnificent turnaround five years later: in 2019, the revenue of Microsoft's intelligent cloud business has surpassed that of Windows, and there are even analytical predictions that the business of Azure, the cloud computing platform, will replace Office in 2022 and become the largest source of income for Microsoft. It can be seen that Microsoft can successfully transform itself into the world's third technology giant to break through the trillion-dollar market value, and the new IT transformation has a great relationship.
Similarly, Intel gave up its mobile chip business in 2016 and switched to a new IT architecture. They began to invest heavily in the Internet of Things and artificial intelligence ecosystem, and even acquired several famous artificial intelligence companies, including Mobileye and Habana Labs. As a result, by 2020, Intel will have successfully transformed itself into the absolute king of the data center market and will have a massive 40 percent share of the 5G network infrastructure market, despite the daunting challenges facing its PC processor business.
Nvidia unveils an artificial intelligence gas pedal for 5G architectures. Image credit: Nvidia.
And Nvidia has since accelerated its presence in AI computing platforms, capitalizing on its strength in GPUs. Today, they are no longer the same Nvidia that made money selling graphics cards 15 years ago, but the world's most valuable AI chip giant. Their chips are often found not only in supercomputers and self-driving cars, but also in a number of data centers and 5G edge servers (pictured above), and Forbes has said that NVIDIA has transformed itself into a data center company that is actively challenging Intel's position.
Microsoft is still Windows, Intel is still processor chips in computers, and Nvidia is still a gamer's gadget, in the eyes of the average person. But these several originally belonged to the traditional IT category of technology industry giants, in the 5G tide before the advent of a long time to change, become the tide of the new IT industry. If the new IT era driven by 5G is really not important, then why do these tech companies want to transform? And what makes them so successful?
06
Chinese companies in transition
What about China? After all, China's focus on 5G as a core new infrastructure project has made the 5G concept a big hit, and a lot of traditional IT companies have seen the opportunity and have been working hard to transform themselves into new IT.
In China, the first tech companies to transform into new IT were traditional server solution providers. As early as 2013, Xinhua San has put forward the concept of new IT, to promote the "three big and one cloud" strategy, committed to big data, big interconnection, big security, the enterprise server "cloud". To Xinhua San to promote the start of the new IT, prompted Huawei, Wave and other server providers, together to promote the intelligence of the enterprise private cloud.
Soon, the development of China's new IT industry once again transformed, but this time the transformation of the protagonist, but replaced by traditional Internet companies.
Over the years, Alibaba has been viewed by many as an e-commerce giant, and even Wikipedia's data treats Alibaba as a simple e-commerce online trading platform. But the foresight of Jack Ma, in 2016, put forward "new retail, new manufacturing, new finance, new technology, new resources" of the "five new" strategy, is seen as a powerful data capabilities, the cloud computing platform service capabilities, to manufacturing, logistics, finance and other areas of penetration, Financial and other areas of penetration.
Image source: Gartner via HuffPost.
While everyone still thinks that Ali only has Taobao and Alipay, they have set up the Ali Dharma Institute in recent years, and also launched the artificial intelligence chip Hanguang to deepen the research of artificial intelligence; also launched the rookie intelligent logistics, as well as the intelligent factory service Rhinoceros Zhizao. What's more, HuffPost reported earlier that the "AliCloud" platform has now become the world's third cloud computing platform (pictured above), with a market share higher than that of Google and trailing only Microsoft Azure and Amazons AWS platform.
With Alibaba's success, Internet companies such as Tencent and Baidu have been attracted to join the cloud battlefield, taking China's new IT architecture a step further. Next, it's the turn of the traditional hardware industry to prepare to join the new IT camp.
Lenovo, also in China's traditional IT camp, is simply a PC market leader in the minds of many, but often overlooks the fact that they are also pioneers of the new IT concept. As early as 2017, Lenovo CEO Yang Yuanqing publicly said, "AI is the future of the information industry, Lenovo has bet its life on AI". But the difference is that the traditional Internet industry origin of the Aliyun, the use is still the traditional cloud computing platform route, while the hardware industry origin of Lenovo, in the new IT more focused on the combination of hardware and software on the whole program.
The 5G signal transmitter used in Lenovo's production line. Image credit: Tiger Sense.
After all, Lenovo, as a hardware industry, is more aware that under the new IT architecture, massive IoT data will bring a huge load to the cloud, which will easily cause excessive latency, while newer smarts, such as automated driving, will require low-latency processing. Therefore, when the new IT industry is deployed, it is not possible to rely solely on the traditional "cloud-pipe-end" cloud computing to operate, and edge computing must be deployed at the same time. Lenovo's current plan is to cover the scope of the new IT architecture, down to the "end (terminal), edge (edge), cloud (cloud), network (network), intelligence (intelligence)" and other aspects.
Seeing that the Chinese technology industry is transforming into a new IT, and that the new IT architecture is sinking deeper and deeper into every aspect, it is estimated that in the near future, China's technology industry will soon usher in a new wave of reshuffling.
07
The invisible revolution
3G and smartphones, for our society to bring major changes? I guess no one should be against it.
Today, everyone is praising Steve Jobs for ushering in a new era of mobile devices, but consider Steve Ballmer, who was still Microsoft's CEO in 2012, when he said of the iPhone with a sour note:
The iPhone is unlikely to gain any share of the market, not at all.Today, everyone is praising Musk for ushering in a new era of new-energy vehicles, but consider that in 2013, Jaguar Land Rover CEO Ralf Speth also said of Tesla:
Electric car batteries are too expensive, and you can only drive them in the city. So I need to build an electric car just for rich people?Does 5G really matter? It probably really doesn't matter much to a lot of people.
But when we think back to the changes brought about by smartphones and electric cars, can we really be blasé enough to think: Is 5G really just a gimmick?
The spring breeze blows into the house, moistens things silently. Undoubtedly, the new network technology, led by 5G, has not yet been able to bring much change to the average user. But the transformation of tech companies like Microsoft, Intel, Nvidia, Lenovo, Huawei, Alibaba, and many others shows that 5G is already making a huge difference to the entire tech industry - even if it's not something that the average person will notice, or notice soon.
As 5G becomes commercially available in 2021, driving the development of the Internet of Things, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence, these new IT pioneers will reap the dividends of the new IT era before anyone else. Those who fail to keep pace with the new IT architecture are likely to be drowned out like Nokia or Motorola.
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