We will put together a summary presentation and blog on all the top-stories and trends from MWC but in the meantime here’s the report from the final day on the floor Thursday.
Mobile Device Management & Security
Ever thought about how a company with 10.000+ people manages all the mobile devices and business applications the emplotees carry? A big theme for MWC 2013 is mobility management and security services. Airwatch had an one of the biggest stands in hall 3 showing off their latest products, Mobile Iron a slightly smaller but also impressive, Samsung launched their new Knox security service and we also had a chance to meet DMI on the floor talking about the latest and greatest in this space. Although a lot of big companies already have some solutions in place the complexities just keep on increasing with more OS platforms, device manufacturers, bring your own devices, new apps, enterprise appstores and stringent security requirements.
Ericsson hall with Huawei
The biggest spender at Mobile World Congress for the past 3 years at least has been Ericsson. They have massive hall on their own but it’s closed for the general MWC visitors unless you are an invited guest. Waiting outside for a friend who was late from a meeting I got asked if I wanted to join a tour in the meantime and I said yes of course. 1 min later we were being rushed through the enormous hall. Our guide pointed at the latest antenna equipment left, radio towers right, micro links, nano stations, core network, cafe for guests, full size NOC (Network Operations Center), solutions for the connected home, connected cities, connected cars, customer care systems, BSS and end of tour in 5 min. At some point towards the end I asked who the other guests were. Huawei they said and suddenly I understood the rush and the two extra people following us. What was even more amusing is that they thought I was also from Huawei. A few minutes later I returned back in with my host for some lunch and drinks. Puh!
Real size Connected City
A new theme this year was Smart Mobile City which was a huge stand built as a city street organised by GSMA, Vodafone, Deutsche Telecom, AT&T, Telenor and SK Telecom. Here you can experience the latest technology and future trends in smart homes, robots, cars, scooters, public transport, eco food bins, energy efficiency, M2M and more. As my colleague simply put it, cool stuff! We want to live in the future.
The new venue
Finally, everyone asks us about and has opinions about the new MWC venue. What do we think? Fantastic! Better layout, more public meeting areas, good combination of indoor and outdoor terraces and open spaces, greater variety of food although still mostly very bad, great opportunities for demos of e.g. NFC in the hall ways and extremely efficiently organised for getting in and out. We can always be nostalgic about the conference in Cannes which was over-packed and Montjuïc Fira (a few km away from the new venue) which could no longer cater for all exhibitors and visitors but in reality the new venue succeeded in delivering the best MWC to date. Congratulations to a great job done GSMA!
Magnus
