Being just one of the 80,000 visitors attending MWC this year reminds me just how much our industry continues to grow. Virginia Rometty (CEO, IBM) said this is an eco-system show not a mobile trade show. She is right; it has been heading this way for a few years now but this year it seemed to have finally made it.
When Ford Motors turn up and launch the all new EcoSport the week before the Geneva Motor Show, you know something is changing in the way the other industries now look at mobile. Stephen T. Odell, President of Europe, Middle East and Africa, Ford Motor Company said this is a technology show and cars are a connected technology so we chose to launch the car at MWC.
Of course there were some notable absentees from the gathering although Nokia did return. Google were absent and Apple continue to refrain from engaging. So, apart from those who can’t find their way out of Silicon Valley, there were 1750 exhibitors. Both the number of attendees and the number of exhibitors were new records for the show. MWC and CES are now the two primary industry tech shows. One could argue the only two that matter these days.
Key Note speakers do draw crowds, journalists and analysts – which is important for the show. Not surprisingly, Mark Zuckerberg had a pop star like following and crowds were queuing hours before the doors opened. It was a full house even with him being screened all around the congress village and – I am told – with 35,000 more watching live on the internet. For me he was disappointing, unable to tell us anything interesting and came across as being nervous, tense and hesitant – perhaps he is not so experienced at public speaking. In contrast, the following day Virginia Rometty really did show him how it’s done. A natural, engaging, enthusiastic speaker, with passion and full of belief. She told us about her game plan and her vision and although this didn’t surprise us, she at least was entertaining and passionate about it.
It has been my privilege to be asked to act as Honorary Chair of the Judging Panel for the GSMA Global Mobile Awards for a few years now. We had 180 Judges this year.
http://www.mobileworldlive.com/interview-bill-best-awards-chairman
With nearly 700 entrants this year over 38 categories, these are undoubtedly the industry’s premier award programme. One of the side benefits of being the Chair, apart from meeting so many wonderful judges, is also to meet the star guest compare – this year James Colden (Smithy to Gavin and Stacey fans). It never fails to amaze me how many new jokes about using a mobile phone these guys can come up with.
This was also the last GSMA gathering with our dear colleague and old friend, Charles Brookson attending as Chair of the Security group. Charles is the last link between the origins of GSM and today so it truly is the passing of an era. This was marked with a ceremony and reported on in show daily. A privilege for Anne Bouverot!
What was big at the show?
MWC had no titled theme this year although the strapline was ‘Creating What’s Next’. It was up to us to go figure what we think is coming next but I’m sure we all came away with a different opinion on this. Unsurprisingly, there was a lot of noise about Virtualisation, Big Data and the Internet of Things – phrases that can be made to mean just about anything you want them to! Of course Apps are everywhere and not just Applications but Apparatus as well. Despite the concentration of operating software the device world is still looking to have proprietary hardware whether they be wearables, consoles, big screens small screens or Xlets. Maybe we are entering the Apps2.0 era!
On the low profile side of things I would definitely have to put RCS. Is it forgotten before it even arrives? The desire to make this the ubiquitous rich messaging platform for all the MNO customers to use world-wide seems to be dissipating. Have the MNOs thrown in the towel? I think vendors may think that. Two years ago there were plenty of vendors talking RCS, this year hardly any. Vendors quickly work out what MNOs are asking about and the almost disappearance of RCS from the stands tells me the world is moving on without RCS.
Device launches returned to MWC this year. The GSMA have had an award for the last few years for the best new device seen at show and to be honest this has been a bit of a damp squib. But this year there was some hot competition. Leading the way, in terms of prestige anyway, was Samsung who launched the new Galaxy 5. We also saw the LG G Pro 2, Sony Xperia Z2 tablet, Samsung Gear Fit, HP Slate7 Voicetab and the Huawei MediaPad X1 unveiled. The winner by the way was the Samsung Gear Fit.
I think Virginia Rometty had it right when she said this an eco-system show and mobile is now touching more and more industries in more and more different ways. The Connected City shows one bit of this but it’s only when one walks round the whole show that you realise this is now the Mobile Economy Show. And it also is a truly global show. So the mobile economy is global and getting bigger all the time. That has to be good news for all us working in it doesn’t it?