Barcelona - MWC

Thomas Husson | February 07, 2008, 12:22 PM

From a US perspective, Mobile World Congress may be perceived as an event to keep an eye on. In comparison to the 150,000+ delegates at CES and other shows in Las Vegas, it still is pretty small. However, it clearly is the most important mobile / telecom event of the year and one of the biggest conferences in Europe.

Lots of interesting stuff to be announced, precisely because of the fact that boundaries are being blurred around the "convergence buzzword". New entrants are coming into the business: Apple, Garmin, Internet players, media companies not to mention handset manufacturers launching their content offerings (Nokia's Ovi, Sony Ericsson's PlayNow...). Tectonic shifts are simply happening in the mobile value chain.

Mobile TV, Ad-funded mobile content, mobile advertising, social networks and location-based services will thus probably be around the hot topics even more than last year. As a symbol, for the second year in a raw, there will be a dedicated mobile Entertainment hall.

As per last year, expect lots of hype around the new technologies: Wimax, IMS and particularly this year around Femtocells, LTE and NFC.

As always, new devices will be introduced. In the autumn / winter 2008 collection, you can expect lots of focus around the new segment (touch screen interfaces), NFC-enabled handsets, HSUPA mobile phones to upload user-generated content and so on.

This year, I had to book a room as early as October, received the first press releases in December, and the first briefings end January, so no doubt lots will happen in Barcelona.

Expect few posts during the show itself, but drop me a line if you want to get in touch.