“We are thinking about the system, how it works end-to-end; it is the combined compute power that is this 5th Wave,” he added.
The 5th Wave will also make traditional ways of measuring computing power obsolete, Segars pointed out: “We shouldn’t measure devices on megahertz, gigaflops, or terawhatever. It is about the system: the devices, network, and the cloud all coming together.”
This wave “is going to create massive change across the tech sector and drive everything we will do for the next couple of decades,” he adds.
And we are at the earliest stages of this wave. That means “there is the opportunity for an awful lot of invention,” said Drew Henry, ARM senior vice president.
Because the 5th Wave of computing is all about devices that communicate, Segars took attendees on a quick trip through the history of mobile communications: 2G created the ability to send text messages; 3G involved being able to load music and videos onto a device; and 4G made it possible to stream video and music, thanks to low network latency.
5G, he said, will be the biggest change of all. Network providers will no longer be thinking about the number of people or screens in the world they need to serve, but about how many things we need to connect.
What will this mean for the user? We’ll have to wait and see—and the waiting will take….five years.
“I’m sure in five years’ time,” Segars said, “when I look back, I will see something that relies on all these connections, on the high-capacity networks. There will be some service we just all take for granted.”
“I just don’t know what that business will be,” he adds. “The question is—who will invent it?”
Looking beyond five years into the future, Segars predicted that in 2035, one trillion intelligent devices will be connected through 5G networks.
Marcelo Claure, the COO of SoftBank and chairman of Sprint, which is owned by SoftBank, echoed that prediction and calculated that would translate into US $11 trillion in economic value created by the gadgets.
“There is a lot of money to be made,” Claure said.