The Mobile World Congress 2022 has just ended, and it seems to have been a great success, especially for the spirit and morale of the people. The GSMA has released the first numbers: about 60,000 people, more or less half of 2019, the last time the sector met before Covid. The strong desire of people to get back to normal and the need, especially for smaller companies, to show their skills will continue to make the Mobile World Congress a success. Speaking with some of my colleagues in the field, it seems that closed-door meetings have increased, and with them interpersonal connections: and that’s what I expect to happen in most post-Covid events. Personally, I think the GSMA has missed the opportunity to make the fair even bigger by upgrading the online part. Most of the conferences, in fact, were unfortunately only available to those present in Barcelona and not to the online audience. I understand the desire to bring people together, however, if there is anything we learned during the pandemic about democratizing access with technology, it is that you can broaden your audience by offering online experiences that add to those in person.
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The announcements
MWC has always been more telco and business focused, and this has been even more noticeable this year. Consumer products such as PCs and smartphones were launched before the show, to give them maximum exposure, so much of the announcements at the show were about network optimization, future technologies like 6G and Wi-Fi7 and current ones, for make the most of resources such as 5G or the cloud.
The one that has been the star of the event for quite a few years, 5G (in all honesty, much sooner than necessary), has finally moved from smartphones to connected devices and experiences that move a much greater perspective. . From smart cities to cars to the cloud. While the 5G narrative is well established, most consumers have yet to experience it, which makes talk about 6G a little premature. Meanwhile, there are a few things to keep in mind.
First, the world is set to be more and more digital. The Metaverse, which has been mentioned several times over the course of the week, will require connectivity. Whether it’s Wi-Fi7, 5G, or 6G will depend on your location, network coverage, and cost, but there’s no doubt the world will need more connectivity, not less. Meanwhile, there is talk of optimizing networks and infrastructures, of devices working more together to deliver a better user experience.
Second, the transition from 5G to 6G will be more evolutionary in nature than that from 4G to 5G, which could result in a shorter time to market than expected.
And finally, the presence of the Americans was reduced, due to the difficulties of the journey. Thus the participation of brands known to the general public, such as Meta, Netflix or Google, was in a minor tone. It fared better, for example to AWS, which had a considerable presence, perhaps also due to the more challenging European regulatory environment. Of course, the economy and the recovery from Covid-19 also require greater attention to business, both for how companies have evolved during the pandemic, and for the new opportunities that digital transformation has opened up for businesses.
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Two realities
The show was also clearly a bridge between two realities: the pandemic and the promise of crypto, Metaverse and NFT. Especially from a device perspective, we have seen PCs in the limelight following the resurgence experienced in the pandemic and the desire of manufacturers to maintain momentum by introducing devices that adapt to hybrid work and a greater volume of digital workflows. . Huawei unveiled an e-ink device that is both an e-reader and a notepad, the MatePad Paper while TCL’s NXTPAPER MAX10 offers a paper-like surface for drawing and taking notes.
What we haven’t seen much, at least from a news point of view, were the VR and AR viewers, and here comes the chicken and egg issue, as it already was for virtual reality. Do we need to build the Metaverse before making major hardware investments or do we need to start with the hardware to open the door to the Metaverse? Or maybe the market is waiting for Apple later this year to start over from there?
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And topics
If I had to pick winners and losers of MWC 2022, I would certainly say people and industry won, but there hasn’t been a brand or theme that has clearly emerged. Of course, the current geopolitical climate and the great suffering of the pandemic have forced companies to be more sober, so the emphasis has, if anything, been on big social issues and how technology can help address them. At the top of the list was sustainability, connecting people still offline and the drive for equality of rights in the digital field.
I can’t wait to attend MWC23 in person!