Dialogue with Huawei: Where are the killer applications of 5G? ToB pursues win-win situation of social and commercial value

Today, Huawei's MWCS (Mobile World Congress Shanghai) 2021 media analyst pre-communication meeting was held in Shenzhen. Huawei's Executive Director and President of the Carrier BG Ding Yun, Huawei's Vice President of Cloud and Computing BG and President of the Marketing Department Shi Jielin, and Huawei's Vice President of Wireless Network Product Line Gan Bin accepted media interviews, introduced Huawei's latest key product solution highlights and conference themes, and responded to industry hot topics.

5GToB needs to achieve a win-win situation for social and commercial value

In 2020, 5G ToB commercial use started. Currently, more than 20 industries around the world, including coal mines and ports, have deployed 5G demonstration applications. At the same time, global operators have signed more than 1,000 5G industry application contracts. 2021 will be the first year of large-scale commercial use of 5G ToB.

So in Huawei's view, which industry fields are likely to achieve breakthroughs first, and what representative implementation cases can be shared?

Ding Yun, Executive Director and President of Carrier BG, Huawei

Ding Yun said that in terms of 5GToB, Huawei has made many attempts in various provinces in China in the past year and a half. 5GToB aims to achieve a win-win situation in terms of social and commercial value. Take the coal mining industry as an example. Today, the environment of coal mines has improved significantly, but it is still a very difficult environment. Through the innovation of 5G, the number of on-site workers on the operation surface can be greatly reduced, and they can work remotely with more dignity. This will contribute to the social value, and the other commercial value is undoubtedly also great. In addition, there are great opportunities for steelmaking enterprises to apply 5G.

"The core of 5GToB selection is to look at social value and commercial value. I believe that both should be given equal importance. We make choices based on these two values. We hope to be the first to apply 5G and digital technologies in these industries so that the industry can be upgraded." Ding Yun said.

The development goals and paths of cloud, computing and storage are clear

Last year, Huawei adjusted its organizational structure, with Cloud & AI BG listed as one of the four major BGs alongside Carrier BG, Enterprise BG, and Consumer BG. At the end of last month, Huawei Cloud announced that Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei Consumer Business and Executive Director of Huawei, will concurrently serve as President of Huawei Cloud and Computing BG.

Does this mean that Huawei will make major changes in its cloud business? What is the focus and plan for the development of Huawei's cloud business this year?

Shi Jilin, Vice President of Huawei Cloud and Computing BG and President of Marketing

Shi Jilin said that the changes in Huawei's cloud business have shown the importance Huawei attaches to cloud and computing business. It can be seen that this business will continue to be developed and expanded as an important part of Huawei in the future. In terms of the overall positioning of cloud and computing, the relevant strategy was released last year: one cloud, two wings and three engines. Based on this grand strategy, it can be seen that the three businesses will develop continuously in the long term within the scope of cloud and computing.

Shi Jilin introduced that Huawei Cloud was rated as the fastest growing mainstream cloud service in the industry in 2020. Both the number of online launches and partners are developing rapidly. In the Chinese market, Huawei has ranked second in terms of brand awareness and market share, and is constantly improving.

In the computing field, Huawei's core strategy is to focus on computing architecture innovation, including diversified computing power innovation from general computing to general computing plus heterogeneous computing, and full-stack collaborative innovation from hardware to basic software to application enablement, providing the world with diverse computing power, and adhering to the strategy of "open hardware, open source software, and enabling partners" to promote the development of the computing industry and the construction of an ecosystem.

In the storage field, Huawei's storage industry has achieved great development in the past two years, and its enterprise storage has been ranked in the leader quadrant of Gartner's storage magic quadrant for five consecutive years. Huawei hopes to move from data management to data operations, and help more industries realize value and achieve data-driven innovation. Therefore, in this field, it has entered more than 150 countries around the world and almost all industries through its efforts in the past few years, and has become the industry's first choice.

"Cloud, computing and storage all have their own very clear development goals and business realization paths," said Shi Jielin.

ToC is the foundation for Huawei's 5G development

This year is the second year of large-scale commercial use of 5G worldwide. On the C-end, what are the development characteristics of 5G this year? How does Huawei help operators better develop C-end users?

Gan Bin, Vice President of Huawei Wireless Network Product Line

Gan Bin said that pipelines will stimulate business development. First, in the process of rapid business development this year, we have seen businesses such as 360-degree ultra-high-definition video, education and tourism related to AR. We will find that in the process of 5G commercialization in 2020, high-definition and immersive businesses will gradually emerge.

The second is terminals. Last year, there were only more than 100 5G terminals, but this year there are more than 500. The world's mainstream manufacturers, including high-end and mid-range manufacturers, have emerged in an endless stream, laying a very good foundation for the development of the entire industry.

The third is the operator strategy. Since 5G has a cost advantage over 4G, operators are gradually accelerating the transition of users from 4G to 5G.

Gan Bin believes that the development of ToC is the foundation of Huawei's 5G development, which is why Huawei changed the theme of the wireless network target network to 1+N. 1 is the wide pipeline for consumers. We must do a good job in 1 network, so that the success of 1 can lead to the success of N.

Where is the killer application of 5G?

5G killer applications have been a long-discussed topic. In Huawei's view, will there be 5G killers and applications this year?

Ding Yun said that the application of 5G is to realize the large-scale commercial use of 5G in various scenarios. There is no doubt that South Korea is moving very fast in 5GToC. From the perspective of industry applications, South Korea has seen many applications in live HD video ARVR applications, VR games, AR education, fan economy, variety shows, etc.

"Just like when we think back today to when we talked about 4G in 2013 and 2014, everyone was actually asking the same question about 4G at that time: what is the killer application of 4G? What really took off in China was short videos and the live broadcast economy. We believe that after the road is paved, there may be more applications in ToC that exceed our imagination," said Ding Yun.

In the ToB field, Ding Yun said that 5G empowers smart factories and industrial testing in large manufacturing industries, which will promote further improvement in production efficiency. During the Shanghai exhibition, Huawei will explain the 5G smart factory in detail to the outside world.