Mobile World Congress 2013 – A Show In Transition - Shelly Palmer

If you came to Mobile World Congress 2013 expecting superexciting product announcements from major manufacturers and hoping to see groundbreaking technologies you came to the wrong place for the wrong reason If you came to see who39s who get a general health check of the industry and meet people with whom you could do business MWC 2013 did not disappointHTC announced its new HTC One a week ahead of the show Samsung will announce its Galaxy S IV at its own press conference in New York on March 14 th And with the exception of Samsung39s Galaxy Note 8 iPad mini competitorkiller and Nokia39s 520 and 720 lowerend lessexpensive Windows Phone 8 offerings there was not much new from the big playersFirefox and Tizen and a few other competitors for the quotthirdquot operating system were on display but it is very early days and regardless of features it39s impossible to pick a winner amp8211 or even a serious contender just yetIf you came to MWC 2013 for the hardware you would have been reminded of Comdex about 20 years ago amp8211 a sea of undifferentiated hardware handsetsPCs all running the same operating system Android 412Windows competing by touting features as opposed to benefitsWhat did we see Quadcore processors that allowed devices to multitask HD video and better cameras Yawn Again if you came here to see new awesome hardware you came to the wrong placeThat said there was a remarkable amount of business to be done this year The new venue was big and well suited Hopefully the city of Barcelona will work out the cab lines bus lines and train lines for next year 75000 people all trying to get from the Fira Gran Via back to the middle of town was challenging actually exceptionally annoyingLogistics aside carriers from around the world attended and were there to do business as were manufacturers of all sizes If you wanted to create a B2B or M2M solution that required OEM hardware and deals made with carrier in global markets this was THE place Content providers advertisers and brands had the opportunity to meet every organization in the value chain and get a better understanding of the role of each And MWC 2013 was also a great place to develop relationships with your counterparts from around the worldThe statistics are compelling According to Cisco of the approximately 22 Billion people connected to the Internet today 16 Billion of them connect using a mobile device There are over 7 Billion connectable devices in the world today and by 2015 Intel says that there will be over 3 Billion connected people using over 15 Billion connected devices How will we service a market growing at this rate If you spent your time wisely many paths to answering that question could be found at the CongressWhen asked why he no longer frequented Ruggeri39s a popular St Louis restaurant Yogi Berra famously replied quotNobody goes there anymore It39s too crowdedquot Is this the fate of Mobile World Congress I don39t think so Hardware is clearly becoming a commodity Until we see a new class of PostPC wearable or sensorbased hardware every announcement is going to be relatively uninteresting But Mobile World Congress is a show in transition It39s less about hardware and more about people doing business For those who came to Barcelona with clear objectives MWC 2013 was an unqualified successRead Dan Hodges thoughts on the Mobile World Congress hereShelly Palmer is Fox 5 New York39s Onair Tech Expert WNYWTV and the host of Fox Television39s monthly show Shelly Palmer Digital Living He also hosts United Stations Radio Network39s Shelly Palmer Digital Living Daily a daily syndicated radio report that features insightful commentary and a unique insiders take on the biggest stories in technology media and entertainment He is Managing Director of Advanced Media Ventures Group LLC an industryleading advisory and business development firm and a member of the Executive Committee of the National Academy of Television Arts ampamp Sciences the organization that bestows the coveted Emmyamp174 Awards Palmer is the author of Television Disrupted The Transition from Network to Networked TV 2nd Edition York House Press 2008 the seminal book about the technological economic and sociological forces that are changing everything Overcoming The Digital Divide How to use Social Media and Digital Tools to Reinvent Yourself and Your Career York House Press 2011 and Digital Wisdom Thought Leadership for a Connected World York House Press 2013 For more information visit shellypalmercomRead all Shelly39s MediaBizBloggers commentaries at Shelly Palmer ReportCheck us out on Facebook at MediaBizBloggerscomFollow our Twitter updates MediaBizBloggerThe opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaBizBloggerscom management or associated bloggers MediaBizBloggers is an open thought leadership platform and readers may share their comments and opinions in response 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