Huawei, the Chinese smartphone and telecom gear maker today announced that it would be launching its first 5G smartphone during the second half of 2019, and the device will feature Huawei's own 5G modem. Huawei made this announcement at the Global Analyst Summit 2018 in Shenzhen, where the company revealed its plans for 2019. 5G is considered as the next big thing in the telecommunications sector, and it's expected to gain momentum next year. With all the rumours around 5G, Huawei today confirmed that it would be releasing a smartphone with a 5G modem in 2H 2018. Possibly the Huawei Mate 30 will come with 5G modem because the Huawei Mate 20 is expected to be releasing some time in the second half of 2018.
While the company is yet to disclose the details of the smartphone, it has confirmed that the 5G modem will be manufactured by Huawei itself. For the unaware, Huawei, at the recently concluded Mobile World Congress 2018 event in Barcelona announced its 5G modem, the Balong 5G01 chip. This 5G modem is promised to deliver a downlink speed of 2.3 Gbps. However, the Balong 5G01 chip is not meant for smartphones, instead, Huawei said that it would be used in self-driving cars and other IoT products because of its large size, but the Chinese company stated that it's working on a smartphone 5G modem as well.
Furthermore, Huawei stated that there would be 1.1 billion 5G connections by 2025 and 200 million connected cars based on the 5G network. As mentioned, Huawei is one of the largest telecom gear makers alongside the likes of Ericsson, Nokia and ZTE. The company is helping India's leading telco Bharti Airtel to roll out 5G network services in the country. Both Huawei and Airtel already achieved a 5G connection in Delhi.
As per a recent report from Counterpoint Research firm, the 5G smartphone shipments are expected to reach 110 million by 2021 with a whopping 255% growth. "We also expect 5G chips to have a higher price point which will initially drive the cost of devices up. 5G capable devices will be premium only in the beginning. Also, only a handful of countries will be deploying the first 5G infrastructure," Research Director Tom Kang said in the report.
Several telecom operators in countries such as China, United States, Germany are already testing the 5G network and the Indian government also promising that the sub-continent will get 5G services in-line with other major countries.
