Im a Judge at Mobile World Congress 2015 Barcelona - Global Mobile Awards

Attending Mobile World Congress 2015 Barcelona March 2-5 2015 – I am an invited Competition Judge.

The annual Mobile World Congress hosts some of the wold’s largest communication companies, with many unveiling their latest phones and wearables gadgets. It is the world’s largest Mobile Wireless Trade conference , with a record 90,000 people attending this week and covered around the world by media commentators and analyst. It covers

If Mark Zuckerberg’s job interview advice he gave on day 1 at the Mobile World Congress Keynote Monday is “ I only hire someone to work directly for me if I would work for that person”, then I certainly agree with him in that culture , leadership, and strong values are central to world class companies. Those values are key to thinking digitally in embracing how technology powers relationships, creates value through experience steering decisions and insights.

#1 Digital thinking needs to consider culture and leadership as central to its success

He responded to the more complex issue of the internet giants like Facebook and Google are riding on the back of the telecoms operator networks by saying that popular web and mobile services attracted customers, data traffic and that there was a need to work out a profitable model for all partners. This sentiment remained at odds with telecoms providers who invest in local jobs and infrastructure investment to enable such services to de delivered.

#2 Digital thinking involved models that work across physical and virtual infrastructure to deliver at the edge by mobile and web attached devices

Later on Tuesday Tom Wheeler, Chairman of the FCC gave an equally enlightened defense of the digital open internet restating that monetization and . “Spectrum, openness, and competition is the pathway for the 21st century”. The case for netneutrality is closely entangled with the way markets, economies and business will have to work together. Technically there where challenges ahead in both legislation and being able to drive , Wheeler described this as a marriage of Moore’s law and wireless would define the 21st century. Again, a tension exists in how telecoms and other services can protect their value while maintaining competition and innovation. Wheeler summed it up again as “ the beauty of spectrum (in digital compared to analogue) is that you can share spectrum”. This means the model is fundamentally different to the physical world of assets and ownership – it’s a subscription and information service economy.

#3 Digital economics value is a “shared business model” by the massive connectivity of devices and networks. Its is a modular layered approach where businesses can exist nested on top of networks and services.

These are the key differences that living in the digital economy means in defining how commerce and business models will work.

The striking thing about MWC15 is that mobile is nolonger just about smart phones, it now includes other devices and sensors and the network services this brings. The even had whole areas of the eight arenas dedicated to wearables, Internet of things, connected cars. It was also striking that MasterCard . This is why its “Innovation at the edge”.

My involvement with MWC15 was as an invited Global Mobile Awards judge from PA Consulting and Warwick Business School. The awards are ran by GSMA a body affiliated to the United nations. During marking we reviewed about twenty entries for best Mobile app category. The event itself has over 37 awards across a range of mobile, connected services as well as new catagories of best wearable. Governments and specific themes are also recognized for their contribution to building inclusion and growth of the telecoms market and society.

Some Key announcements.

• Despite the conspicuous absence of Apple, its iPhone was the clear target of announcements

• Apple reported record iPhone sales, including an 83 percent increase in sales in China versus the same period last year.

• Apple might earn as much as 93 percent of the profit in the entire handset industry.

• Little margins intensifying competition for what’s left

• Samsung Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge, have all-glass unibody designs, superhigh-resolution screens, fast processors and a focus on cameras, fingerprint technology and a forthcoming mobile payments service

• Samsung sales being eroded by Xiaomi, Lenovo and Huawei

• Microsoft introduced two new lower-cost Lumia phones

• Going after business market B2B

• Business phones versus high cost of iphone

• Looking at growing China and India market. Apple getting close to overtaking Xiaomi

• Huawei, a Chinese phone maker, introduced a 5.5-inch phone called the Honor 6.

• LG and Huawei announce smart watches

• HTC One M9 is essentially the same as last year’s M8.

• The rise and fall of HTC

• Huawei working on 5G patents

• Blackphone and the privacy communications company Silent Circle this week announced the second iteration of their privacy-oriented phone. Blackphone 2 expected to cost $649. Similar to iphone but without its functionality

• Blackberry launch Blackberry classic last year. Announced lower-cost, all-touch-screen device. Blackberry Leap.

• Blackberry falling to 0.4% market share. Trying to be a software & services company

• Hardware less important. Growing software and content categories …

• HealthKit and HomeKit, its frameworks for collecting health and fitness data and connecting to smart home devices.

• Google’s planned MVNO will reportedly only work with the Nexus 6 Phablet

#Event #Mobile #Telecoms