The Business of Fashion
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
OXFORDSHIRE, United Kingdom — It’s been labelled a carcinogenic risk, the promise of a better future and is the subject of a geopolitical rivalry between China and the United States. So how much attention should we pay to 5G?
Speakers Mary Clark and Professor William Webb, mediated by Zeitguide's Brad Grossman, had different takes on whether the promised future could — or — become reality. “The spinning wheel of death goes away,” said Clark, chief product and marketing officer at Synchronoss, a cloud solutions company. She argued that 5G can transform the world through improved access and connectivity, predicting that remote-operated surgery, near-instant movie downloads and flawless mobile phone service were on the horizon.
Webb, chief executive of Webb Search Consultancy, countered that much of this had been promised with the arrival of 4G, while the real-world impact proved to be more modest. He also questioned the need for 5G’s more futuristic applications when so much could be accomplished by improving 4G coverage.
“My car already goes faster than the speed limit, what’s the point of going five times faster?” he said. “5G really should be focused on getting good coverage everywhere… not downloading a movie in four seconds.”
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Brands are using them for design tasks, in their marketing, on their e-commerce sites and in augmented-reality experiences such as virtual try-on, with more applications still emerging.
Brands including LVMH’s Fred, TAG Heuer and Prada, whose lab-grown diamond supplier Snow speaks for the first time, have all unveiled products with man-made stones as they look to technology for new creative possibilities.
Social networks are being blamed for the worrying decline in young people’s mental health. Brands may not think about the matter much, but they’re part of the content stream that keeps them hooked.
After the bag initially proved popular with Gen-Z consumers, the brand used a mix of hard numbers and qualitative data – including “shopalongs” with young customers – to make the most of its accessory’s viral moment.