The "IOT Unicorn" and the Qualcomm 5G Summit

I'm heading back after an interesting week in Barcelona at the 5G Summit - the riots notwithstanding (ironically, it was moved here to escape the tumult of Hong Kong).

This event is always a good opportunity to take stock of where are as an industry - how far we have come, measuring milestones against past promises, clarifying the next few years and dreaming about a distant future. 

And as always, spending time with colleagues that I have been working with along that journey. The companies and titles may change but we stay basically the same, with kids getting older and lives evolving (and in some cases growing long beards). We can rely on the 3GPP, GSMA, TM Forum for standards and initiatives, companies like Qualcomm, Ericsson, Microsoft and other partners for technology, but people still need to work together to make this stuff into something deployable and "business-worthy." We meet, we speak on panels and keynotes, we nosh, have some beverages - as was said at the show - it's a team sport. 

I had more than one person ask me about culture - how has it changed at Microsoft and how has that change (still in process) come about. I urge you to read Satya's recent letter to shareholders, where he reflects on how critical the right culture is for success and, in my opinion, justice - treating each other with an inclusive understanding and empathy. The culture of the telco industry is, how shall I say, not there yet. I was on two "manels" - men only panels, and heard a few jokes and anecdotes I wish I didn't. Not unusual for a tech conference, but a reminder that we have a ways to go. The fact that culture was even a topic in some of my conversations was encouraging. 

So what was the buzz? Sounds like #5Gisreal. 40+ roll-outs worldwide, about 5x the 4G wave, with numerous device builders jumping in. Mostly phones, as that's the natural starting point, and arguably the broadest consumer electronics platform of all time. But I've always thought of the phone as just the beginning - the value of 5G isn't fully realized until it brings the cloud and edge together for a variety of endpoints. And, I did see good progress this year from module makers, industrial suppliers and even PC OEMs in this direction. 

I also saw some great presentations from infrastructure providers such as Nokia and Ericsson - like Dynamic Spectrum Sharing and other advances to help accelerate roll-outs, provide more agility, and drive down costs. I'm interested in the impact from 5G roll-outs in emerging markets as much as "NFL cities" and major world-wide metros.

I saw a great presentation from SK Telecom where they talked about streaming services such X-Cloud, where we recently announced a partnership. I think we're infatuated with streaming right now since we're used such a poor cellular connection between cloud and edge - it seems like a neat parlor trick. But once 10s of Gbps becomes the norm that barrier disappears and the data truly becomes fluid. Streaming becomes the new normal - streamed from where to where? Who can tell. 

Similar to using an Always Connected PC for a while, with 20 hours of battery life and 30 days of standby, with truly instant on - once you go back to an older PC it's like stepping into a black and white movie. We normalize these technology gaps until a breakthrough comes along where you realize you've been hacking through the experience this whole time! 

There were sprinklings of discussions at the 5G Summit on forward-looking network investment like network slicing, CNF, private wireless and broader leverage of the hyperscale cloud, but maybe that will be more of a focus for next year. 

I was particularly interested in the mixture of IOT and cellular/5G this year. Many many discussions with partners on this topic, and it feels like we have a line of site to what I refer to as the "IOT Unicorn" - a cell connected, solar powered (or super low power), secure and AI-capable device. I want "peel and stick" these anywhere - in the ground, on a tree, in offices, shops, shelves, schools, on the roof or in the bushes (on a train, on a plane!). The IOT Unicorn enables me to bring data into my cloud, enables to me update it, and can process locally "as appropriate." It powers on and connects to my cloud without any set up, declares it's capabilities and remains secure and "tamper-proof." I can use LPWA or at some point 5G (and WiFi) , so I have virtually unlimited density and low latency/bandwidth if I need it, with a seamless developer fabric between the edge and cloud. 

If we can't get these things connected and secure, then how can we think about intelligent and ultimately autonomous scenarios in the future? 

This is one of the reasons I was excited about the announcement we made with Qualcomm (and NXP recently) on Azure Sphere. You can read more about Azure Sphere here, but it brings an end-to-end secure and manage capabilities to to the great unwashed masses of sometimes connected, hardly updated, maybe password protected things out there. 

We still probably have a 5G Summit or two to make the IOT Unicorn real. There is some great new silicon out there, super creative device builders and solution providers, all pushing us forward. Telco partners are maturing their IOT platform offerings and connectivity providers are getting super creative with monetization, including connectivity in the device price itself. 

Demand for digital transformation and "accelerated business outcomes" seems to be almost outstripping supply - that's the good news! Now we need to work together in this team sport to take the friction out of a connected cloud and edge world - the devices (The Unicorn, but also PCs, phones, dual screen things, vehicles, and equipment), the business models, the security and manageability, and the platforms that gets developers excited. 

 We have the pieces and the people - looking forward to next year (back in Hong Kong?).