Mobile World Congress 2013 -Agenda of Side Events

BARCELONA -There is a staggering number of side events at the Mobile World Congress this year, and you can expect as much life outside the congress walls as within.

Some events I have signed up for to date are:

1. Innovation on the Fringe (part of the Mobile Fringe Festival) where startups will be demo-ing their wares in a fast pitch environment

2. Mobile Sunday Barcelona taking place at the Moritz Brewhouse, now in its 3rd edition and promising to be a great pre-event hangout for a very mixed crowd of delegates

3. TechCrunch Mobile Meetup on Wednesday 27th at the Telefonica Auditorium should feature a select group of local and international mobile startups

4. WipJam Party also on Wednesday at La Fianna Bar (expect this one to be heaving and definitely the place to be to connect with savvy developers)

5. MLove Party on Thursday 28th at Ocaña in Plaza Real (great venue, so promises to be a great party)

I'll keep this blog post up-to-date with news and links up until the MWC dates.

Mobile World Congress 2012 –Summary, Conclusions, Trends

MWC12 has come and gone –with attendance ballooning to approximately 67,000 visitors, the event is becoming as much a test of stamina and personal fitness as much as being a showcase of new devices, infrastructure and mobile lobbying (mostly by the GSMA).

Each yearly edition comes with its own unique flavor -3 years ago saw the rise in prominence of content providers (and the App Planet) ,2 years ago the industry was in crisis-mode and the mood was gloomy at the show. Last year, the Chinese manufacturers staked their claim on the mobile sector with force. This year, the ambition and determination of Chinese manufacturers ZTE and especially Huawei was made even clearer.

Of all the devices, the Huawei Ascend series with their quad-core processors, clear displays and crisp Dolby sound impressed, though HTC were not far behind with their line-up (even though it had less marketing pzazz).

Nokia made an astonishing comeback at the show, with a very large area in Hall 7 dedicated to showcasing their new 808 PureView 41MP award-winning Symbian phone and the new Lumia line-up that was created with a grassroots approach to design and has plenty of appeal to that key 25-35 socio-demographic with its stylish casing and colour combinations. It is clear that WindowsPhone has all the cards in place to become a serious Number 3 OS player, and it is now down to executing on strategy.

Perhaps disappointing was the lack of true innovation in devices at the show (I was showcased a 2005-style GPS app by NTTDoCoMo this year , which was a very bizarre experience). I was amused by the waterproof handsets and tablets by Fujitsu ( a good idea) and by NFC-enabled advertising billboards by SK Telecom, but overall, the term  “innovative “ was not the order of the day.

My personal best marketing award goes to Android/Google for captivating the imagination of congress delegates with different styled Android figures, a touch wall, an Android robot capable of making customized device cases and, of course, the Ice Cream sandwich ice-cream. Mobile is about having fun in a personalized way as much as it is about communication, and Google gets this, so hats off.

Content & Apps for Automotive Europe 2012

Ford (whose Evo concept car shown at the MWC is pictured above) was the first car manufacturer to ever give a keynote presentation at the Mobile World Congress and, with Machine-to-Machine (or M2M) communication emerging as a key mobile trend, we can expect more manufacturers to follow suit.

In the competitive (and high-value) care market, technology is seen as a key differentiator, with big ideas now being discussed to connect "intelligent" cars with mobile communication technology.

The Content & Apps for Automotive Europe 2012 conference in Munich is the highlight of the conference calendar for this year in the telematics area- you are still in time to attend and get a special $100 discount for being a blog reader of Ric Ferraro´s Blog!

Below you can see the latest press release on the event the organisers have sent me:

"London, UK (PRWEB) November, 2011

The mobile apps market is set to grow to a $25 billion marketplace by 2015 (Source Strategy Analytics).

Compelled by these figures, OEMs have spent the past 12 months launching their own content and app strategies. Influenced by enhanced smartphone and tablet capabilities many are introducing next-gen content and services through advanced platforms and cloud-based technology.

The content and apps market is at a crucial tipping point. If a real return on investment is to be achieved the automotive industry must decide how they want to work with app developers, the appropriate business models and develop workable open standards.

Content and Applications for Automotive Europe 2012, Conference & Exhibition (18-19 April, Munich, Germany) will provide key information and analysis and help you spot the revenue opportunities of in-car apps, meet key app developers, understand the potential app business models and predict future in-car content trends and capabilities.

Expert Speakers include:

Fiat, Ford, Jaguar Land Rover, Volvo, Harman, Continental, Denso, QNX, Chleon, Telenor, GSMA, The Linux Foundation, Sony Ericsson, and many more.

For the complete Content and Applications for Automotive Europe 2012 conference program and speaker line-up, access the e-brochure at: http://www.telematicsupdate.com/contenteu/conference-event-brochure.php, or contact the Conference Director."