Introduction

Over the past couple of decades, mobile operators have made substantial investments in 5G, Edge technology and more. These businesses are blessed with abundant opportunities to distribute and innovate with cloud-based applications, quantum computing, artificial intelligence, blockchain, virtual reality, so on n so forth. However, despite these advancements, we believe that end consumer experience has not witnessed a paradigm shift at the same accelerated pace.

In this article, we will explore the current state of mobile operators and aim to highlight the need for a new approach.

Before we begin, let us look at how Telcos and OEMs are placed in this space and how consumers are receiving them.

Current State of Telcos and OEMs: A Disjointed Landscape

For device manufacturers, edge technology can significantly improve device performance and responsiveness by bringing computational power closer to the consumers. OEMs have made progress in edge computing and AI capabilities, enabling faster processing and real-time experiences. However, we feel like there is still a massive room for improvement in terms of optimizing the performance across different device models and addressing the potential bottlenecks.

For Telcos , incorporating edge AI, IoT to enable connected experiences and smart functionalities, while ensuring ease of use, across multiple devices and platforms, remains a challenge. Also, adoption of 5G for Edge implementation that helps manufacturers, in enhancing performance, lowering latency, and improving connectivity, is in our opinion, sufficiently underutilised.

Telcos face several challenges in fully utilizing the innovation potential of 5G technology. They struggle to recoup their financial investments in 5G and are experiencing intensified competition from various players and device owners. Moreover, with the widespread emergence of Web 3.0, consumers and business requirements are beyond the capabilities offered by 5G alone.

So, let’s ask the important question here, which is ‘What is that key element that will help improve this lagging consumer experience? Let us look at the current state of consumers on digital platforms and their expectations from the same.

The Current State of Consumers: Digital Expectations

The fast-moving professional landscape, rise of Gen Zs and clear access to generative AI, has intensified consumer demands for personalized experiences. From what we gather, consumers, (often brand ambassadors of devices) are predominantly young and working individuals who expect digitally enabled experiences in every aspect of their lives. They seek device intelligence that can bring functional benefits like, where’s the last order, what’s the latest in sports and news, step count during the day, bills to be paid by eod, and more. They’re looking for ways to outsmart their own mindset and deliver on-demand convenience in the best way possible. This also includes high-quality gaming, real-time updates, live content, seamless shopping, personalized recommendations and more.

Now that we understand where the gap is, let us try to find a way to fix it by providing meaningful solutions, for these expectations.

Bridging the Gap: Creating a Smaller, Smarter, and Smoother World

Over the past three to four decades, we have witnessed a paradigm shift in the way content is consumed across channels, and how it is relatively smoother with the advent of the internet.

However, some critical questions that we would like to ask are: Does consuming content really become easier, or does it lead to cognitive overload? Does it make a consumer’s life easy during functional hours of the day or does navigating through multiple apps become a challenge? Is the consumer journey in search for knowledge, and doing an action, become seamless?

To answer these questions, we have found that adopting a new approach is the need of the hour. Let’s talk about what this approach would intend to do in bridging the gap.

New Approach: Immersive Surface Experience

Adopting a chic smart is needed to bridge the gap, that helps transform the cognitive overload into a thin layer of meaningful content. This smart layer, integrated into mobile devices or tablets, can effectively declutter the abundance of content and make the physical device more meaningful and personalized for users. Basically, this is that “Surface”, which reads human minds (with the power of AI) and serves consumers what they need. Edge also helps keep personal data secure, unlike cloud computing.

Furthermore, Telcos and OEMs can join hands in leveraging Edge and 5G to deliver this Immersive Surface Experience that will declutter every moment for consumers. With this improved consumer experience, Telcos/OEMs can generate amplified engagement, which accelerates growth, not just for them, but content developers too.

Not just that, apart from an amazing user experience, this approach ensures a completely secure experience that focuses on keeping all the privacy guardrails in place. Isn’t that brilliant?

Conclusion: Building a More Focused Consumer Journey

While we feel like handset manufacturers play a crucial role in connecting consumers across the globe, it is equally important for them to contribute to the development of a more focused individual. This necessitates the emergence of a smart layer, illustrating the concept of an app-less consumer journey. By inspiring, engaging, and growing with consumers, this smart layer can effectively lead to the creation of a better surface technology.

To learn more about how the app-less surface ecosystem can enhance technology experiences, stay tuned to our blogs or reach out to us at insights@glance.com