Sunday, January 30, 2022

How Much Will Mobile Device Demand Decouple from 5G?

With the caveat that the online poll was not intended to be representative of all users, a survey by GSMArena suggests a certain amount of decoupling of demand for devices and networks. 


Some 34 percent of respondents who use 5G phones say they do not use 5G because it is not yet available. And, with the caveat that behavior is likely to change once 5G is widely available, the poll still shows that demand for phones--and phone features--is to some extent possibly disconnected from the attributes of the network the device will use. 


Some popular consumer devices are designed to be used  independently from any mobile network, using Wi-Fi or Ethernet for connectivity, others are designed to use both 4G and 5G, with a default to 4G when 5G is not available. 


source: GSMArena 


But smartphones are only partly utilitarian devices. They also are fashion. Image and personas. So some 5G phone users have purchased 5G devices even in advance of 5G networks being available, which is a new behavior enabled by handset suppliers emphasizing device features other than 5G. 


The larger question is whether substantial percentages of 5G device owners continue to behave this way--owning 5G devices that do not connect to a 5G network--over the longer term. 


The same question might be asked for customers who do not yet think they “need 5G” or do not buy because it “costs more.” Over time, those objections should cease to be relevant.


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