Huawei 2014 Annual Report Download - page 55

53Industry Trends
In his 1995 masterpiece Being Digital, Professor Nicholas
Negroponte painted a grand blueprint of the digital era,
vividly depicting a huge shift from the physical world to
the digital world. Today, most of the exciting changes
in his book – both to work and life – have come true
thanks to digital and network technologies.
However, this is certainly not the end. It's a new
beginning. With the physical and digital realms
continuing to converge, we are embarking on a new
journey to a new industrial revolution and a Better
Connected World where everything will become smart.
Against this backdrop, which direction will humanity
take? What rules will govern how technology evolves?
What new trends will redefine the business landscape?
This revolution will be a journey into the unknown. We
must embrace change as it happens, and our insights
must be accurate, if we are to adapt and flourish in
this new era.
A lifestyle revolution: Digital natives are leading
the way.
Over the last 20 years, the first generation to grow up
with the Internet has come of age. They are known
as the "connected generation" or "digital natives".
The ways in which they communicate, socialize, have
fun, consume, and learn are vastly different from what
came before. For example, instead of relying solely
on audio or video services, digital natives now prefer
scenario-specific immersive communications. Learning
has changed from a unidirectional knowledge transfer
to an explorative experience. The word "Phubbing"
has been coined to define this new generation. The
new way they live can be summarized as "ROADS" –
Real-time, On-demand, All-online, DIY, and Social. The
ROADS experience creates new consumption patterns
in the Internet era.
The connected generation is also influencing the
behavior of their parents and grandparents by teaching
them how to use digital devices and apps. If those who
were born in the 1980s and 1990s are digital natives,
their parents and grandparents are "digital refugees"
who are trying to straddle the digital divide. They are
now becoming "digital immigrants" by learning how to
shop, chat, and find entertainment online, and how to
call taxis using a phone app.
A new technological revolution: Interdisciplinary
integration and innovation, especially the
integration of IT with other technologies, is
driving change.
A new technological revolution, powered by
interdisciplinary integration and innovation, is underway.
In materials science, great advancements have been
made in graphene and nanotechnology. These nascent
materials are very likely to catalyze new game-changing
technologies, just as silicon did in the past.
In the network and computing domain, wireless
technologies like 5G will greatly enhance spectrum
efficiency and bandwidth capacity in the short term.
There have been great advances in quantum computing
and quantum communications.
In the energy domain, renewable energy and energy
storage technologies, as core disruptive technologies,
will become our fundamental source of power.
In genetics and digital biology, the continuing infusion
of biotechnology and computer technology will power
the storage, analysis, and interpretation of the genetic
code. Genome sequencing, genetic medicine, disease
prediction, diagnosis, and treatment will remake
healthcare.