Mobile World Congress - sensory overload


The mobile ecosystem is alive and well and flourishing and reflects its current status as the globally dominant (and growing) industry  that is becoming increasingly integrated into every aspect of our lives.    The Barcelona extravaganza which is notable for two things.  Firstly its sheer size – upwards of 60 000 delegates dwarfing anything ever held in Cannes ( when I last visited the show) and secondly,  the absence of the largest company in the sector – Apple.   Never known to follow the crowd – Apple rightly or wrongly uses its own platform ( in San Francisco)  to make its announcements and thereby retains its mystique or displays its sheer arrogance – depending on your perspective.

That Mobile will continue to permeate every aspect of modern life is beyond doubt.   The first phase of GSM where voice was the killer app has now been replaced by data and most particularly Internet access and mobile applications.  So Mobile expands beyond the MNO realm and extends into Broadband where WIFI connectivity has become a key strategy for MNO’s to relieve the burden on their networks.   We now live in a truly connected world with almost as many mobile connections as there are people on the planet which recently hit the 7bn mark.  In addition there are over 1bn Broadband connections and this is growing at over 30% per annum.    The global mobile industry generates $1.5trillion in revenues and almost $200bn is invested in Capex every year. ( GSMA )

The increased access to the Internet is vital to the expansion of knowledge and thereby our ability to solve the seemingly intractable problems facing humanity.  Watch this fascinating TED talk on how we can solve these problems with the spread of education, knowledge and ideas all accelerated by the Internet.  (http://www.ted.com/talks/peter_diamandis_abundance_is_our_future.html)

Here’s to the next year of every increasing connectivity and  new ideas.

The Huawei horse 

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