5G smartphone shipments to increase 700% in 2020

A new report from Omdia has revealed the global appetite for 5G-enabled smartphones, with expected shipments to skyrocket almost 700% in 2020 compared to last year.

The recently released research paper explores the worldwide impact derived from the introduction of 5G, and the strategies, technologies, companies and market trends that have sprouted as a result.

The report analyses the extent to which multiple areas - including sports, autonomous vehicles, gaming, wireless components, IoT, cybersecurity and AI – will be affected by the global 5G rollout.

The global 5G smartphone market is expected to surge by approximately 700% from 29 million last year to 231 million units shipped this year.

This is expected to double again in 2021. This means in the 24 months between 2019 and 2021, shipments will increase almost 1,500%.

The report says this growth will be driven by declining device costs, which will reach the $700-$800 range in the next two years.

The valuation for 5G RANs will rise to $21 billion in 2024, up from less than $4 billion in 2019.

The proliferation of 5G RANs is a critical element in the establishment of an end-to-end architecture for 5G, says Omdia.

The company believes this will enable the delivery of advanced services for diverse markets including factory automation and self-driving cars.

The revenue growth for edge devices and networks deployed for AI will increase $827 billion in 2025.

By this time, Omdia says two-thirds of all smartphones will include built-in AI capabilities, and global revenue for AI smartphones will increase 1,200% to $378 billion from $29 billion in 2017.

To alleviate consumers' privacy concerns, smartphone and smart speaker manufacturers will introduce 5G products which perform visual AI processing tasks on edge servers and appliances, bypassing the privacy risks involved in sending data to the cloud. 

The media bundled-service revenue market is expected to grow to $2.6 billion by 2024.

Omdia believes CSPs and rights holders will be collaborating to offer bundled services combining 5G and live sports events.

Global 5G enterprise mobile subscriptions are set to rise 35,000% to 175 million by 2024, up from 500,000 in 2019.

Approximately 40% of the announced deployments of enterprise 5G networks since 2016 are for manufacturing, followed by 18% of deployments in transportation and logistics.

The study highlights the need for a strategic overhaul for communications service providers (CSPs) as well as any enterprise involved in the technology, media, and telecommunications (TMT) ecosystem.

"The paper demonstrates our commitment to delivering truly integrated thinking and a new interdisciplinary approach to market intelligence, which allows our customers to uncover fresh perspectives and gain competitive advantage," says Omdia president and managing director Mike Phillips.