Research essay on 5G and IoT

I. Introduction

Media and Communications market trends develop overtime. We started from printed media, moving to radio and television in the upcoming years. Right now, we live in a time where all trends are mostly run with help from the internet. This effect changes the way we commonly do things, for example, access and spread information.

For a market that rapidly grows and evolves, predicting media and communication’s future market trends is a complicated thing to do. However, there are current trends that will evolve to become the most important ones in the years coming. The media market is very competitive and everyone is already thinking on creating the next big thing. Doing this every time, they intend to please users’ needs more and more. It’s interesting to see how our needs change over time and how when one is pleased, another one arises. As the market evolves, we evolve with it and find that there’s still a lot that needs to be done.

Currently, we’re in the era of digital growth. Either if it is for recycling or simply that we’re too attached to our phones and digital content, the main focus is to create things to be used with our devices. This means we are finding new ways to adjust current markets to the latest trends. As the internet becomes more available to everyone as time goes by, it creates new opportunities for target audiences that haven’t experienced yet what is like to be online. This opens up a new way to share information and content. It’s expected that by 2030 around 7.5 billion people will be online, almost doubling the current 4 billion. This rapid growth increases demand of many things, one of them being faster internet service.

II. Three key trends

The first trend that will define the market in the upcoming years is 5G, leading up to 6G in the future. This is the next step in our cellular network evolution, creating a faster data transfer between devices. This trend in particular is so important because it’s not only a step forward for cellular data improvement. It brings more to the table than just faster internet. 5G alone is expected to be 100 times faster than our current 4G. Faster broadband leads to more technological advances that will also help shape out our future trends. With this increase, it makes it possible for us to experience future technologies that are put on hold because they need faster networks to react properly. 5G’s biggest attribute is low latency, which means the amount of delay between sending and receiving information is much lower. This helps our “smart” devices to react as fast as possible to the network. The possibility to make “smart cities” a reality is one step closer as it’s expected to work with wireless sensors, vehicle-to-vehicle communication technologies and all of our smart appliances.

Since it’s able to send and receive information that quickly, it means that we can use 5G to replace real-time interactions. We’ll be able to interact with people and objects with no lag (or delay) on either side. This opens the door to a lot of new technologies, for example, self-driving cars can make a new breakthrough, as they’ll be able to interact with traffic lights, road sensors, other cars and so on. This would prevent car crashes or traffic in the future as they’ll all be connected to one another.

Although it all seems like it could happen sooner than later, they’re still trying to figure out a way to connect all the waves together, since they’re shorter than 4G ones, they can’t be connected for long distances. A way to connect all of them together and be able to bring this into the world still seems like something distant since it’s harder to make than what it’s already here. Security concerns are also a problem. People believe this new speed can create new weaknesses in security and allow hackers to find other ways to tamper with our information or have new means to target, like the autonomous cars, smart homes, etc.

Creating new technologies always bring a downside to things and unless they come up with ways to fight them, some people will be hesitant to take advantage of these. Overall, 5G should significantly improve the bandwidth, capacity and reliability of cellular broadband far more than previous generational shifts, but we’ll only find out its true capabilities once it’s officially released. I think this trend is really important because it’ll impact out lives in a new way, creating a real-time reaction with technology that will change the way we use our smart devices.

As the world around us gets ‘smarter’ and more connected to technology, it’s becoming more common to be surrounded by digital devices in places we’ve never thought we would have them. A second trend that I consider will grow in the future is IoT (Internet of Things). IoT is the concept of connecting any device with an on and off switch to the Internet or to each other. It’s a giant network of connected “things” and their relationship between people-people, people-things and things-things. Basically, anything can be connected, phones, washing machines, etc. They then can all be connected to each other and their main goal is to help improve efficiency on the way we work and live.

IoT is expected to revolutionize the way we do things normally and can impactfully collect more data than ever before and analyze it. Right now, it’s popular mostly on products such as smart speakers that we place in our homes and it can give us information and do basic tasks for us. Its potential is expected to give out more benefits for society, for example, businesses can free up employees from tasks, hospitals can monitor patients more effectively and locally we can gather weather and traffic data. As something that is slowly growing, it has raised a few concerns already regarding security and if they’re listening to you or spying on you. When we have all of our home connected, it can lead to people stealing your information or companies having too much of your data for their networks. In 2017 there was a huge security breach with IoT devices that raised major concerns for the upcoming years, which is probably one of the reasons it’s not growing to its full potential as quickly as we would expect.

The focus when creating new technologies should be shifted to be on security from one end to another. In order for it to evolve, we have to rely on the product that we are being given. There have been conversations about how this security will be improved as we start receiving new products and Artificial Intelligence (AI) is being considered for real-time security monitoring as well as blockchain technologies.

As they continue to emerge and every day become more integrated in society, IoT devices are gaining popularity and they’re expected to be more than 21 billion of them in the upcoming years. With the rise of other trends like 5G, it will also fuel the need for more IoT devices as they’ll only get better and faster. We’re headed for a ‘smart’ world, where everything we use is connected to the internet and data sharing will be more crucial than ever.

The last trend I consider will grow exponentially is video streaming and content sharing. It’s true that this has been growing at a fast pace in the last 10 years, creating new markets, new ways to advertise and view content, and a change in our daily routines. We use streaming now as the default way for content viewing. We are slowly moving away from conventional content and channels, into new technologies with fresh ways of accessing it. Netflix’s success made it clear that we’re ready for something different, the problem with this is that cable companies and companies with the rights to exclusive shows will start creating their new platforms. One example is Disney starting out their new streaming service and pulling out and canceling shows from Netflix that are under their rights. Cable companies are also starting to offer streaming services as a package as an incentive for people to keep using their cable service.

The demand for content and streaming is overwhelming and people find themselves owning more than one streaming service. I feel we’re too focused on what we’re going to miss out of if we don’t have it all. Free services like YouTube are also on the way on convincing you to pay for them, every few days they will suggest you joining YouTube premium for even more exclusive content and an ad-free version. This in a way feels like what cable companies already do. They sell you a package of channels for you to watch everything you want. It’s believed that packages including all the streaming services will come to play at some point, making you pay again large sums of money for video content.

With the importance of social media these days, I think they will take a place in streaming as well. There have already been some new ways of sharing content through Instagram and Snapchat. Instagram’s function for Instagram TV lets you share longer videos on the platform, now they’ve integrated this function on the feed so you can continue watching a video that’s too long for the feed on their TV section. Many current artists like Billie Eilish have developed “vertical music videos” so they can premiere them on Instagram or Spotify. Also, Snapchat recently developed a miniseries following a young female rapper from the US and made it into 12 mini episodes. They’re all becoming new ways in which we see content being shared. It wouldn’t be a surprise that one streaming platform or even YouTube partners up with social medias to share their content cross-platform.

An interesting take on social media and TV is how Twitter and news channels work together to bring detailed news with videos in a series of tweets so users can interact with them and discuss with other users. This all gives feedback and data to companies and they can clearly see people’s feelings on recent events.

Streaming is not something exclusive to pre-made content, it’s also a way to do live broadcasts. They can vary from content creation, sports, conferences, concerts, etc. On many occasions, live sports matches and conferences have been made available for HD streaming on social medias as Facebook. Brands have adapted their plans so their content can be available in various platforms and not just through a cable provider. Also, if you’re part of a cable company you can view their content online on their website.

Advertisement plays a huge role on how streaming will move forward. In some services like Netflix you’re free to watch whatever you want without going through “skip ad” or having to watch interrupted content. This is one of the main reasons I think they’re more successful. It’s a fact that people are annoyed by having ads on every single platform they use, that when they are able to enjoy it without ads it gives them a choice very few other services do. YouTube is one of the biggest ‘free’ platforms that you can still enjoy content every day without paying anything, but the number of ads they’re starting to put up on their videos is making people install ‘ad blockers’ or pay for an ad free version. There are several webpages, mostly news ones, don’t allow you to view their content with an ad blocker since it’s the way they get their money. They ask you to turn it off or pay usually 0.99 cents to continue with an ad free version. This is something I see happening soon in YouTube, they’ll identify when you have an ad blocker and you’ll be forced to turn it off or pay for YouTube premium.

It’s important to not discredit the amount of power these platforms hold, since it’s known that when TV started people thought it wouldn’t last. Investors have the option to start their platforms and see where they go or sit there, do nothing and hope it all fails in the end. Internet-based streaming is a disruption that is here to stay and it will change content platforms, business models and our habits. A great example of changing the current habits is that now movies are starting to premiere on both Netflix and cinemas. This doesn’t only happen for small box office movies, but the Oscar nominated movie, Roma, is a great example.

This is expected to continue growing and changing, making each platform create their own original content so they don’t continue paying for other people’s content or when they eventually take it off the platform, they can have their own content that is just as good as the competitors. In 2017, Netflix spent $6.2 billion on original and acquired content and in 2018 it was $8.3 billion. It’s clear that they will continue this method and other streaming platforms like Amazon are doing the same. Having your own original content draws people in, since it’s the only way you can get the content.

Overall, video streaming is something that will continue to grow and disrupt the media, advertisers, cable companies and TV networks. Paid subscriptions are either going to get out of hand or have their own niches. Since they don’t have to rely on advertisers, as we pay for the content, they’re able to create what the customers want and continue to grow. It’s likely that different platforms will interact with each other soon, like Spotify and Hulu who are joining so you can have both subscriptions at a lower price.

All these three trends are able to evolve using one another. With the opportunity of 5G, it opens up a new door for both IoT and streaming. It creates the availability to grow into new markets, to develop more products and to already make much better what is already here. The main goal of all three is to improve user experience finding new methods to incorporate to the current media and communications market. What’s important to know is that all three have potential to expand to new markets, as the world still has a long way to get more people online. The more the people online, the better it is for the market as it’ll gain more from the new customers. Mass media is expected to reach 40% more by 2025.

Although for all of them, security and privacy are a huge issue, it’s also something that we’re experiencing right now. Security breaches, data selling, all of them affect our trust in providers and makes us hesitant to continue using certain products. In a world where privacy is considered to be dead, where do we go from there? I believe that it’s inevitable that our information and data is shared with other companies, since after all we have our names attached to everything we use. Every subscription, every email, every online order, they’re all part of our online identity and it’s impossible to continue moving forward and not be willing to share more and more of us as new technologies emerge. Nevertheless, there has to be a change. Companies need to make safer spaces for us to continue moving forward. There has to be a balance in knowing that using the products we’ll be safe from hackers and also not feel attacked when they gather all of our information and share it between themselves. For me, this is the middle ground that is hard for them to get to and that’s why things move slower that what we would expect.

III. Conclusion

In conclusion, all trends are working to reach what’s going to be more convenient and interactive to use. They all are dependent on one another because it’s what’s going to be defining our lives in the upcoming years. From the current way the market is shaping our behavior, it’s clear that as we continue to move forward, we have to be willing to give more of ourselves so companies can give us the experience we want. We’re learning from the media’s mistakes and moving towards a new world where we are aware of what’s going on with our information and where is it going to end up on. With this change, companies can work on creating products that’ll meet our expectations on both convenience and privacy.

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Research Journey

Researching for this particular topic is a challenge, because every person’s opinion is different from one another. The trends I think are going to be sticking around for years are not the same as everyone else’s. However, by giving out my reason it’s easier to explain why I believe they’re important to be aware of. They’re all things we are experiencing currently, but that will grow to a point that will be the top trends moving forward.

One thing I realized when researching for trends is that in a way, they all help one another exist. Some of them even exist because of previous technological advancements. Moving forward they will all evolve from one another and won’t be able to exist without each other. It was interesting to see how even though they’re so different from one another they all connect to create new products that we’re using today and some that we’re going to use in the future.

An obstacle that I reached when researching for this essay, and is something I mentioned in the essay as well, is the advertisement issue. I was forced several times to turn off my adblocker or I had to pay to view certain articles. Also, I ended up subscribing to different pages so I could either view the content or continue reading. I thought they were good enough content to keep reading, so I ended up subscribing. It’s funny how many times we end up wrapped around in subscribing to different medias in order to enjoy a product and when we look at our ‘promotions’ tab on our emails we barely recognize what we really wanted to subscribe to anymore.

Another obstacle was figuring out which information had valid points and had my same way of thinking on how these trends will be relevant in the upcoming years. Some were too extreme or too vague in giving out the information.

One important thing I discovered is that current trends are just the evolution of previous trends that are adjusted to seem new and innovative, but really are the same as they were just targeting points and needs they haven’t before. They evolve to face new markets, new customers and new ways of using what we already have. It’s all about improving the products and finding where they could potentially go next.

Overall, in my journey I discovered that trends have to work together and what we think is new and disruptive always has a backstory to it. Predicting what we will be using in the upcoming years can be inferred from our current behaviors and the current market. Of course, there’s always a turn in things that customers and the market don’t expect that could happen, but it's also something that is very rare. New technologies and innovations are most likely to end up with big investors as they continue to challenge themselves to be the most known and relevant company in the market.