Mapping the Pokemon Go Effect

Pokemon Go has been downloaded over 75 million times (and probably more by the time you read this). In fact, it became the number 1 downloaded app in the US within a day of its release. There’s been many articles focusing on the negative societal side effects of Pokemon Go relating to violence, robbery and accidental discovery of dead bodies, but this only goes to show that we are dealing with a true phenomenon that is the start of a new trend. Let’s not forget to mention that it will most definitely be copied by other game developers as well as become an inspiration for other types of apps.

Pokemon Go is essentially an “augmented reality” app, which skillfully combines a virtual world with the real physical world. Ideas for augmented reality have been around for a number of years, but Pokemon Go has paved the way for commercial applications of the technology as users have gained their first familiarity with the concept and will be open to the next application. We should therefore expect a slew of new games and other types of augmented reality, as well as virtual reality, applications to become available very soon.

What kind of impact will this have on the network? Steve Alexander from Ciena expects these developments to place considerable strain on mobile networks and expects them to drive demand for 100G and 5G.