5G Factor: New Device Capabilities Pushing 5G Boundaries

An Assessment of Key 5G Ecosystem Developments Including the Google Pixel 8 Launch, Intel Enters the AI PC Race, and the 5G Americas Forum and NTN Updates

In this episode of The 5G Factor, our series that focuses on all things 5G, the IoT, and the ecosystem implications, I'm joined by my colleague and fellow analyst, Olivier Blanchard, for a look at the top 5G developments and what's going on that caught our eye.

Our conversation focused on:

T-Mobile is Offering Free Google Pixel 8 Products. Google Pixel 8, Pixel 8 Pro and Pixel Watch 2 are now available on the T-Mobile network as T-Mobile is taking orders online and in stores. We evaluate the market impact of T-Mobile promoting the performance gains that Google's new devices can attain through T-Mobile's 5G standalone four-carrier aggregation capabilities. Plus, we review some basic specs and the capabilities of the new Google Pixel products in comparison to alternative smartphones and smartwatches.

Intel Enters AI PC Race with NPU-powered Core Ultra Processor. Intel unveiled an array of technologies to bring AI everywhere and make it more accessible across all workloads, from client and edge to network and cloud, at its third annual Innovation event. Intel seeks to foment the new AI PC experience through its upcoming Intel Core Ultra processors (available December 14), code-named Meteor Lake, featuring Intel's first integrated neural processing unit (NPU) for power-efficient AI acceleration and local inference on the PC. We examine the impact of the launch including use of the Intel 4 process technology in helping to deliver significant power-efficient performance improvements and bringing discrete-level graphics performance with onboard Intel Arc graphics.

5G Americas Industry Analyst Forum. 5G Americas recently hosted its Industry Analyst Forum in Dallas. The event is an opportunity to meet with its 17 member companies to discuss relevant current and upcoming technical advancements as well as participate in a variety of small roundtables discussions with member company subject matter experts. We look at key takeaways including how mobile devices have become integral to all society rendering spectrum as the new oil, identifying the enterprise vertical use cases that are generating revenue today, and new insights on non-terrestrial network (NTN) technology and capabilities.