The mobile market is one that moves and changes extremely quickly – we’ve seen our mobile phones change from small bricks and flip phones into the smart devices they are now in a little over a decade – similarly our habits are changing just as fast, the ways in which we consume media have become a primary focus as our smartphones are more a multimedia device than communication at times. But what are the three biggest changes expected to come within the mobile market?
Introducing 5G
The first big change will come in the form of 5G networking, and it’s perhaps much bigger than some realise. Speed has been cited as one reason, with the download speeds reaching a theoretical of 10Gbps, up to one hundred times faster than our current 4G connection, the difference will be found largely in the upload speed however with real world 4G speeds of up to around 42Mbps – given we send so much data, often more than we download, this is a more important figure to keep in regard – the theoretical max upload speed for 5G matches the download speed of up to 10Gbps too, which provides a host of new opportunities as the networking infrastructure continues to improve. The full realisations that come with 5G will take a little time to really be introduced into the consumer market, but expect changes to happen here extremely quickly.
Changes in regulation
This has already been something changing quickly within our smartphones as it is still an emerging market. The most recent change in regulation can be seen within gaming – particularly in the betting genre. Within the UK this has come in the form of an initiative called Gamstop which is aimed at reducing the number of problem gamblers who can participate on the sites, there are some changes being observed here as many operators are choosing register on sites outside of the UK, and many of these non gamstop bingo sites are well reviewed for example. As the market continues to grow, regulation in areas like this will become more common.
Cross platform connectivity
This change is already happening extremely quickly, and will only be accelerated by the introduction of 5G – we’ve seen changes in platforms such as Google Stadia, and more services like these will begin to pop up allowing mobile users to connect to their consoles and PCs to access software and play games that may not be otherwise available on mobile devices, although there are still some teething issues to figure out with this as performance isn’t what it could be, but there’s still plenty of room for change. Increasing speeds and network connectivity will be a key part of this, but also improving the devices to work more in tandem with this – this may open the door to more cross platform play which has been getting more attention recently, and as mobile gaming becomes more prevalent this will be a cornerstone in accommodating the transition and removing some of the barriers to entry.