Google’s Android One, Android Go, Puffin and KaiO are examples of efforts to commercialize less costly operating systems, allowing less-costly phones to be built, enabling wider use of smartphones by lower-income customers.
Up to this point, the assumption has been that smartphones use cloud computing, and that the resources are far end, implying less functionality than a native on-the-device app when the internet is not accessible. Up to a point, that might always be an issue.
Still, edge computing and 5G might alleviate many of the performance issues associated with light-weight operating systems, and remove cost from devices, if it were possible to rely on external processing to a greater degree.
Simply, with enough bandwidth, and workload compute facilities close enough, many of the former barriers to cheaper devices are eased. With enough bandwidth and local compute capability, workloads and embedded device support can reliably be shifted to a remote location.
Recall that computation and communications are, to a large extent, functional substitutes for each other. One can process locally, avoiding communication, or process remotely avoiding on-board workload processing.
Native onboard apps process faster, in the absence of a connection, arguably with more functionality than a remote substitute. But remote processing removes device cost. What many might prefer--especially service providers and device suppliers--are ways to obtain a better balance of both.
How to sustain functionality in the absence of an internet connection, no matter how light-weight the operating system, is especially challenging. Progressive Web Application is one current way to enable use of web-based apps even when the connection is intermittent. Google Maps, for example, can supply real-time driving directions a user has requested, even when the internet connection to a phone has dropped, for example.
The same principle applies to lighter-weight versions of apps, adapted for situations where internet connectivity is unstable or limited.
That is not to say modern computing can happen substantially without cloud access. Some functionality is possible using native apps.
But the larger point is that onboard solutions alone--though functional enough for some use cases and apps--much of the time, are limited, compared to functionality when all internet-accessible resources are available.
Computing now requires remote processing and therefore communication and connectivity. But edge computing and 5G bandwidth might allow new design tradeoffs. It might well be possible to shift much embedded smartphone processing and overhead to edge sites. Think of the way a Chromebook requires an internet connection to function.
That would allow commercial use of smartphones with greater functionality, and lower cost, than now is possible.
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