Summary
largest mobile exhibition in the world .. Spending a lot of time on the Mobile World Congress exhibition floor is not necessary to get an understanding of current industry trends. AI is pervasive, as it was at CES. You can find foldables on exhibit from almost every OEM you can think of, even ones you may have forgotten about or never heard of years ago. Furthermore, all of the phones being shown on the exhibition floor are from Chinese companies, most likely headed for a worldwide release that, as is customary, will not bring enhanced one-inch camera sensors and enormous fast-charging batteries to North America.
largest mobile exhibition in the world
However, if you look beyond the throngs of people scrambling to take Android pins from Google’s partner booths, concept gadgets are another trend that is going unnoticed. More than ever, the goal of MWC is to make predictions about the direction that mobile will take—without really committing to creating and testing prototypes or even releasing goods. Although a few idea devices are nothing new for the business, I can’t recall ever attending a trade show where there were so many things that weren’t really goods.
A commercial exhibition full with phony goods
Arriving (not so) soon at a retailer close to youNot that there’s anything wrong with it; in fact, I think it’s great when businesses take risks just like everyone else. However, the excitement generated by the Moto Rizr last year seems to have driven businesses to focus on creating eye-catching devices that are unlikely to be seen on retail shelves for some time. My impressions on Motorola’s flexible, a fresh take on a somewhat forgotten prototype shown back in 2016, have previously been expressed. The hybrid smartphone-wearable that the business demonstrated was placed next to a Rizr device that was exactly like the one I saw last year, down to the plastic shell.
As it had done at CES, Samsung Display did not want to be surpassed and brought its own collection of prototypes. While several of these demonstrations were the same as those that were shown in Vegas, the booth was entertaining due to a few novel ideas. Among the gadgets are a bendable smart display that can be folded into its speaker dock, headphones that have a circular screen that shows the song you’re currently listening to, and flexible headphones. Unfortunately, after being mistreated on the show floor for far too long, none of the demo units on the floor worked when I got to them.
Nevertheless, it indicates that other brands are also considering this kind of technology.That’s not where it ends. Before the exhibit floor even opened, Lenovo’s translucent laptop was the buzz of the town, and with good reason. While LG’s transparent OLED TVs at CES are the first translucent display to be shown out at a trade show in 2024, the novelty of seeing Microsoft Paint operating on such an unusual device was more than enough to draw attention.
In contrast to the Rizr, Tecno (who, full disclosure, did support my trip to MWC this year) displayed a rollable in a very different form factor. Naturally, an all-AI smartphone attempted to demonstrate that the Rabbit R1 is not a unique concept.
The display this year doesn’t reflect the heritage of the MWC
Its influence was formerly much more apparent
Even while it might be exhilarating to see these concepts in person, they remain but ideas. Ten years ago, MWC was a completely different event. Rather than only hinting at a nebulous idea of what mobile may be, it better balanced the far future with a much more grounded range of devices. Stated otherwise, they are devices that you could really purchase a few months after they are first announced, if not sooner.
The major one was Samsung’s Galaxy S5, back when the company decided against holding Unpacked and instead held its presentations at MWC. It was available on shop shelves by the middle of April, along with the Gear 2 and Gear Fit, two wearables powered by Tizen.
Sony’s Xperia Z2 tablet maintained the hope of an iPad competitor as LG debuted the G Pro 2. Of all the major companies at the time, HTC was the only one to postpone showcasing its flagship device in favor of revealing the One M8 at a separate event in March. It still had a fresh batch of budget Desire phones to flaunt even then.
Additionally, MWC 2014 expertly blended events with current affairs. Despite having just been bought by Microsoft, Nokia unveiled the Nokia X, its first effort at switching to Android. Shortly after Facebook acquired WhatsApp, Mark Zuckerberg was interviewed live on stage. This concerned the status of the industry as a whole, not simply new goods.
You also have options if you were looking for ideas. Long before augmented reality (AR) became one of the most popular terms in the IT sector, Google itself demonstrated its Project Tango program. Tango’s design encouraged developers to create new applications that could make use of the technology as it was intended to use its cameras and sensors to learn about its surroundings.
It would take Pokémon Go to make augmented reality (AR) a widely accepted idea, but it was precisely this kind of technology that initially made app developers consider the possibility of using AR.Although it may be simple to criticize Project Tango as just another abandoned Google product—ARCore replaced it when the company killed it in 2017—it’s actually an example of a concept device that, at the very least, did have some sort of real launch, thanks to a collaboration with Lenovo that produced the Phab 2 Pro (you can forgive me if you don’t recall that; I certainly don’t).
An imagined future that may not materialize
However, never say never.Though it’s a long cry from what the program used to be, there’s nothing inherently wrong with the futuristic visions of the future filling MWC’s halls these days.
The fact that almost every product, including those that will ultimately be sold in stores, is discussed in hypothetical terms (genAI this, edge computing that), makes it difficult to accept these kinds of future ideas on a serious basis.
Some of these businesses will eventually have to begin delivering goods that consumers can afford. Thoughts are wonderful, it’s possible to be left behind if you gaze too far ahead.
