5G industry terminals are launched! 519 5G terminals, 303 of which are commercially available

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For the development of each generation of mobile communication technology, a simple and intuitive impression is: 1G and 2G solved the problem of making phone calls while on the move, 3G and 4G focused on solving the problem of fast Internet access and video watching, and 5G for the first time shifted the focus to supporting vertical industry market demand.

In the face of differentiated and fragmented business needs, 5G will further empower vertical industry applications through new air interface capabilities (low latency, high reliability, etc.), service-oriented network architecture, end-to-end network slicing and mobile edge computing. Today, with the breakthroughs in the 5G terminal industry chain in key areas such as baseband chips and RF storage, 5G industry terminals are in a strategic opportunity period for industrial ecological transformation.

The 5G industry development progress bar has been opened

2020 can be called the first year of 5G commercialization. 5G-related construction is in full swing, and companies in all links of the industry chain are also keeping up with the pace of the industry. The development of the upstream of the industry chain has laid the foundation for 5G industry terminals. Therefore, before analyzing 5G industry terminals, let's first look at the current 5G development progress from the aspects of 5G chips, base stations, modules and industry applications:

Chip: All related 5G communication chips in 5G devices can be called 5G chips. In the 4G era, there were six major chip players: Qualcomm, MediaTek, Samsung, Huawei HiSilicon, Unisoc, and Intel. In the 5G era, Intel finally found that it was not good at baseband chips, and reluctantly sold its baseband chip business to Apple. Therefore, the current situation has become: Qualcomm, MediaTek, Samsung, Huawei HiSilicon, Unisoc, and Apple.

Note: Since the Kirin chip has been discontinued, it is not listed here.

In terms of base stations: According to recent statistics from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, China has built more than 718,000 5G base stations, accounting for about 70% of the world's total. The investment in 5G has exceeded hundreds of billions of yuan. The 5G network has basically covered all cities at the prefecture level and above in the country, and independent networking mode has been deployed on a large scale.

Looking at 5G base station construction from the perspective of operators, China Mobile and China Broadcasting Corporation plan to complete the construction of 400,000 700MHz 5G base stations by the end of 2021. China Telecom also revealed that it will build 320,000 5G base stations this year.

From the perspective of 5G base station construction in provinces and cities across the country, various provinces and cities are also vigorously promoting the construction of 5G base stations. As of the end of 2020, the construction status of 5G base stations is as follows:

Note: Some provinces and cities are not listed due to lack of relevant data

Modules: As a key component for 5G terminals to access the network, 5G modules have high development difficulty, long development cycle and diverse industry demands, which have become bottlenecks restricting the large-scale application of 5G in the industry. The following are the 5G modules with high recognition in the domestic market:

Application: The rapid development of the upstream 5G industry has promoted the improvement of the 5G terminal and industry integration application ecosystem. As 5G empowers more vertical industries, the diversified and differentiated vertical industry integration application needs in turn promote the evolution and development of 5G network technology. So far, 5G has been leading in the application of ports, machinery, automobiles, steel, mining and energy industries and fields, and its application in key areas such as logistics and transportation, industrial Internet, Internet of Vehicles, medical care, education, and public safety is accelerating.

The 5G terminal ecosystem is flourishing, with multiple terminal types emerging

As the upstream of the 5G industry has laid a solid foundation, innovative products such as 5G smart wearables such as VR/AR glasses, 5G pads, 5G hotspots, 5G routers, 5G adapters, 5G robots, 5G TVs and other smart home personal terminal products are emerging in an endless stream. In 2020, the number of 5G terminal connections exceeded 200 million. In the face of the rapid development of pan-5G terminals, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology stated that it will enhance application innovation capabilities and cultivate emerging consumption models such as 5G+augmented reality, 5G+virtual reality, and immersive games.

As can be seen from the figure below, as of December 2020, global manufacturers have released a total of 519 5G terminals, 303 of which have been commercially available. Among them, 5G mobile phones account for nearly half of 5G terminals, reaching 48.4%.

Proportion of various 5G terminals

In addition to smartphones, fixed-access CPE has become the terminal with the largest shipment volume of 5G. At the launch ceremony of China Mobile's 2021 terminal product strategy and China Radio and Television-China Mobile's joint construction of the 700MHz terminal ecosystem, it was learned that in 2021, personal pan-terminal products will develop rapidly, the categories will continue to be enriched, and the market scale will be further increased.

From the above figure, although the overall scale of 5G CPE is still small, it does exist. The domestic market is expected to sell 500,000 5G CPEs in 2021. At the same time, the industry terminal market has gradually increased in volume this year, the richness of terminals has continued to increase, and prices have further dropped. 5G CPE and gateways are expected to drop to around 1,000 yuan.

In addition, as 5G modules develop towards universalization and modularization, 5G pan-terminals will surely accelerate and develop comprehensively. It is worth mentioning that wearable devices with health monitoring functions and sports data analysis are becoming increasingly popular.

Deeply empowering vertical industries, 5G industry terminal exploration begins

According to a report by IHS Markit, by 2035, 5G will create $13.2 trillion in economic output worldwide, bringing positive changes to many industries such as automobiles, manufacturing, health care, education, and entertainment.

It seems that 5G has gone beyond the scope of mobile communications and has become a key infrastructure for the comprehensive digital transformation of the economy and society, which will promote the transformation and upgrading of vertical industries. Compared with before, 5G industry terminals have shown some new features:

First, the three major application scenarios allow 5G to cover more industries. The diversity of industry applications requires terminals to be carried in various forms, which means that 5G industry terminals cannot be "one size fits all", and there will be a lot of fragmented industry terminals.

Second, compared with 5G consumer terminal users, industry terminal users are highly specialized, so the customization of terminals has also increased accordingly.

Third, vertical industry terminals have higher requirements for performance stability, reliability, and security than consumer terminals. For example, a one-millisecond delay may not be easily detected on a consumer terminal, but it may cause production accidents and industry losses on an industrial smart gateway.

Today, there are still many details in the software and hardware of 5G industry terminals that need to be continuously polished, and the overall industry demand is relatively small. Every application scenario of the terminal requires constant updating of solutions. Except for smartphones, there is still a lot of room for development in the large-scale shipments of terminals in other industries.

The industry still has good hopes for 5G terminals. We expect that the shipment volume of 5G industry terminals will be greatly increased this year. Even if the shipment volume of a module can reach millions, it will be good!