While most cell phone users haven’t even made the leap to 5G phones yet, Samsung is busy developing ‘next generation’ technology. The South Korean electronics giant says it’s never too soon to start prepping for 6G, a process that can take almost a decade from research to commercialization. A recent Samsung report predicts the rollout of 6G could occur as early as 2028, with mass marketing underway by 2030. Samsung anticipates the technology taking a huge performance leap over 5G networks, with peak data rates for 6G about 50 times faster, and air latency -- the time between when an instruction is issued and when it's performed, taking one-tenth the time of its predecessor. Ironically, predicting the uses for 6G hasn’t been fully imagined yet, but Samsung foresees 6G use applications in advanced services such as immersive extended reality, high-fidelity mobile holograms & use of digital "twins" in virtual worlds. A digital twin is a dynamic virtual replica of a physical product or process that can simulate how its real-world counterpart will behave before it exists. Overall, Samsung says its goal is to make 6G connectivity even more reliable & robust than 5G, as 6G will likely be driving hundreds of billions of machines in product & industrial design, autonomous vehicles & drones, remote healthcare support & numerous military applications, all of which will require cutting edge technology that can keep up with their growing needs for high reliability communications & speed.
