Tech in 2019: 5G, AI, 8K -- the year ahead looks like an alphabet soup of progress

Visitors look at a US company Qualcomm stand announcing '5G' technology at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Spain, 26 February 2018 (Photo: EPA-EFE/ALBERTO ESTEVEZ) Consumers will have a lot of new tech to digest in the new year ahead, in what is shaping up to be a year of transition. Here's what to look forward to in consumer tech in 2019. We've been hearing about the wicked fast next-generation of wireless for a few years now, and tests and early deployments of a relatively very small scale have long begun in earnest. But 2019 is when the commercial rollout of 5G networks starts to become more real in a lot more places, in the U.S. and overseas. In this country, the first available 5G-capable smartphones are expected to arrive by the spring, and you'll also see 5G hotspots and modems by then, if not sooner.