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Report: 5G Phones Won't Really Take Off Until 2021

While the major wireless carriers are tripping over themselves to over-hype looming fifth-generation (5G) wireless broadband deployments, a new report notes it could be a very long while before you actually own a 5G-capable handset to take advantage. According to a new report by Strategy Analytics "while the first 5G commercial handsets will go on sale from early 2019, sales will not begin to scale up until 2021 when volumes approach 5% of global handset sales."

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With the launch of some 5G networks next year, the firm notes that 5G handset sales in 2019 "will be in just the millions, and only barely in the tens of millions in 2020." But when things truly take off for 5G, they should ramp up quickly, notes Strategy Analytics Director Ken Hyers.

“By 2021, 5G networks in key countries in Asia and North America will cover many urban centers, giving customers a reason to purchase 5G smartphones," Hyers says. "Nearly 5% of handsets sold in 2021 will be 5G smartphones. By 2023, as 5G smartphone prices continue to fall and next-generation wireless networks are built out across much of the developed world, 5G handset sales will number in the hundreds of millions."

Still, the firm states that older generation technologies (2.5G, 3G, 4G (LTE)) will very much remain in use for a long while.

"2G and 4G handsets will continue to have long lifespans, with both carrying on into the next decade, even as 3G devices fade away," notes the firm, adding that "even as 5G smartphone sales are rapidly ramping up in 2023, 2G feature phones will account for nearly one in ten handsets sold that year, as new-to-mobile customers in emerging markets, particularly in Africa, purchase their first mobile phones."

The firm predicts that current 4G LTE phones will remain hugely popular and well utilized through "2023 and beyond."

Most recommended from 34 comments


brianiscool
join:2000-08-16
Tampa, FL

2 recommendations

brianiscool

Member

Good for 4G

Once, they get people off the 4G band. Then
we will get less congestion on that band.