5G heralds changes at CES Asia
Continential's driveless CUbE bus makes debut in China on Tuesday.
The latest 5G technologies and services will soon be used in the smart driving, retail, video and photography sectors, industry officials said at CES Asia 2019, the consumer electronics show in Shanghai.
Car parts giant Continental displayed its V2X (vehicle to everything) technology and a driverless bus.
“5G will boost V2X platform and development of connected vehicles and smart cities,” said Enno Tang, president and CEO of Continental China.
Suning Commerce Co said it is working with the Jiangsu branch of China Unicom to work on how 5G networks will benefit the retail industry.
The two parties will carry out studies on how technology can help optimize retail operations especially for small and micro businesses and also build prototypes for smart retail spaces through a joint research lab unveiled today.
Digitalization of brick-and-mortar stores will be the focus of Suning to strengthen its key capability to help retailers drive the digitalization transformation, said Jing Wei, Suning Technology Group’s vice president.
“Business models, product offerings and shopping scenarios as well as services of the retail industry will undergo radical changes with the deployment of the 5G network,” said Shi Weiwei, general manager of the Jiangsu Province branch of China Unicom. It aims to set up a benchmark for the leverage of the 5G network in the retail industry by working more closely with partners. A number of unmanned grocery stores are already in operation in selected cities by allowing small businesses to use Suning’s technology platform and logistics network.
5G will also boost startups like Guilin Feiyu Technology Incorporated Company, which produces stabilizer gears for smartphones and cameras.
“With improved speed of 5G, video sharing (to website) will become easier. It will boost the demand of the whole market (on stabilizer for video shooting),” said Moses Wu, Feiyu’s senior marketing manager.
Its sales have jumped over 10 to 20 times annually in the recent years, with revenue reaching 500 million yuan (US$72.3 million) in 2018, compared with 20 million yuan in 2014. The figure will hit 1 billion yuan this year, with booming demand and the development of video blogging and social websites like Tik Tok, Wu added.
5G technology is expected to generate 10.6 trillion yuan of economic output and create over 3 million jobs between 2020 and 2025, according to the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology.
Startups from South Korea, Switzerland and Norway are also attending CES Asia, which runs until Thursday.
5G, with improved Internet access, will boost development of video production and spread, said startup Feiyu.
