Trends such as AI, 5G, cloud, sustainability, rule in 2024

Telecom Leadership Forum 2024, organized by Voice & Data, CyberMedia, was held today.  

Prabhu Ram, Head, Industry Intelligence Group, CMR said that we are now in a decade where technology is the core. 5.4 billion are already connected online globally. 1 billion are expected to connect by 2027. India has connectivity of about 850 million.

We also have trends such as AI, 5G, cloud, sustainability, etc. Last year, we had AI as a hype. In 2024, we have seen ChatGPT to a reality, being AI powered. We are seeing the rise of consumer AI. We spend 1,800 hours on smartphones on an average. Rabbit R1 is a personalized AI assistant, with Rabbit OS. It is sold for $200 in the USA. Sooner or later, it will come to India. Humane.ai is another personal AI assistant. You can browse through palms too. They are in talks with some operators in India. It is slightly expesive at about $600 in the USA. There are new AI-driven devices coming up. Humans are always experimenting.

We are also seeing mainstreaming of consumer AI on smartphones. 5% phones shipped in India are AI-capable. Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra is an example. We are also getting real with XR. We have Air Glass 3 Concept in 2024, by Oppo, following Air Glass 2. It is the advent of assisted reality (AR). We also have Nimo 1 Glasses, with Nimo 1 core. Nimo Planet is spatial compute. Apple Vision Pro provides a second life for XR. It is available for $300. Apple is working on a second-generation model. 

What's happening in India?
So, what's happening in India? We are seeing the advent of enterprise AI. They are placing more emphasis on AI, zero trust security, etc. AI adoption is underway, with customer experience. GenAI can play a pivotal role on influencing customer experience. India is somewhere in the crawl-to-walk space. Technical complexity remains a key challenge for enterprises today.

In cloud, we are far ahead in terms of adoption. Drivers include modernizing data infrastructure, etc. Most organizations have a clear strategy. In 5G, we are now hyperconnecting everything. YoY growth of 5G phone shipments was 67% in 2023. Mobile consumption was 24GB in 2023. 

In sustainability, we are looking beyond energy efficiency. The future is circular, in supply chaina and consumer segments. In gaming and content trends, we are going beyond pixels. We are a mobile-first nation, with most gamers initiated via that route. PC gaming is at a new inflection point. The future is about hybrid gaming and immersive gaming. Regional content comsumption has also accelerated over the last two years. Korean, Chinese, and hollywood, and regional content has been rising.