“ YOU CAN DRAW PARALLELS WITH CHROMEBOOKS HERE , WHICH CARRY JUST THE OS AND BASIC SERVICES , AND THEN EVERYTHING IS DRAWN FROM THE CLOUD ”
DAVID OWEN MANAGING DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS AT INTERCITY
5G : Is it Fast Enough ? According to David Owen , Managing Director of Communications at Intercity , when it comes to assessing the viability of a cloudbased smartphone , “ You can draw parallels with Chromebooks here , which carry just the OS and basic services and then everything is drawn from the cloud . These struggled to take off in a significant way because connectivity in the UK is still patchy and the risk of not being able to work due to this is too great ”.
Shah agrees that , while “ the computing power is certainly available , the latency and coverage needed to be a truly reliable device – even with 5G C-Band rollout – aren ’ t quite there yet ”. The need for superfast connectivity also creates some dissonance when held up against one of the biggest selling points of a cloud-based smartphone : fewer , less powerful components . This makes them an ideal candidate for the budget market . Budget phones tend to sell best in markets where the quality and reliability of networks is a few years behind more affluent countries .
Nevertheless , the gulf between what ’ s possible and what ’ s needed for the dawn of a cloud-based smartphone age is , Owen continues , smaller than it might appear . “ We already consume cloud-based services on our phones for work , email , Power BI , calendar , Teams , Zoom – none of these would work without connectivity , so I can see why cloud-based phones might be attractive ,” he says . mobile-magazine . com 75