From 1995 the Congress developed and grew in Cannes to become the annual event where everything and everyone now converges on Barcelona and where around 50% of the industry’s annual announcements and news is presented. If you are a mobile freak, then the MWC is the place to be to meet like-minded people from all over the world.
And of course Strand Consult was - as usual - present at the congress this year, with five of our employees spending a week in Barcelona to meet and experience the industry that is the foundation of our company.
Again this year we experienced many exciting things, but also a great deal of the hype that the PR companies are trying to create around products that are often so boring that they have difficulty attracting any attention from the press at all. On the other hand, that is their job and from where we are standing it seems like many PR companies interest in the actual products they are working with is often very limited.
The week started with Viviane Reding using MWC to announce that she would now give people cheap SMS and data traffic when they are abroad and once again a large part of the press chose - without any criticism at all - to publish her message without any comments regarding the consequences of what she and the whole EU commission are doing.
All politicians want to be popular - that is nothing new - but on the other hand, perhaps Viviane Reding should consider the consequences of her regulative proposal. Is it her ambition to kill the innovation coming from companies that are developing different types of technological solutions that take advantage of the fact that some Telcos are charging too high roaming prices? Is it her ambition to give the GSM/WCDMA operators a monopoly on telecommunication at the expense of those investing in alternative networks based on CDMA, WIMAX and Wi-Fi? Here at Strand Consult we believe that the direction the EU is taking on this is dangerous. You can read more about this here: Strand Consults Position on Regulation
By attending the MWC in Barcelona you can meet all the significant players in the industry and this year was no exception. It came as no surprise that Apple was neither represented among the speakers at the Congress, nor had their own stand. When a company like Apple tries to enter the mobile industry by creating hype about their product, a direct exposure at an event like this could result in the industry maybe realising that the emperor was not wearing any clothes! We are impressed about how many in the industry are talking about Apple and how many handset manufacturers have been inspired by Apple and their iPhone.
On the other hand we believe in consumer driven innovation and are having difficulty understanding why so many people are fascinated by the iPhone, when a great many European customers are avoiding it and simply not purchasing it in countries (UK, Germany and France) where it has launched. All in all, Apples PR machine cannot deny that Apple has had to admit - in the same way as Rim, Palm and Motorola - that the European market has greater and different requirements from the mobile handsets that they are purchasing, than those Apple can deliver. The iPhone is not a success in Europe and the question is whether the iPhone has in actual fact received more millimetres newspaper coverage than the actual number of sold iPhones in Europe.
A visit to the MWC is also an opportunity to find out what is happening in the mobile industry in many regions around the world and again this year, many countries had chosen to host national stands to show what smaller local mobile players can offer. Visiting these stands is not only inspiring, but also living proof that the future innovation in this industry will seldom come from the large corporations, but rather be created by smaller companies that are then purchased by the large international companies. Microsoft's acquisition of Fast, Nokia's acquisition of Trolltech and Ericsson's acquisition of Tandberg are three good examples of how Norwegian innovation can become interesting for large international companies with global distribution.
One of the countries that again this year disappointed was the USA. For us in the industry, it appears as if Motorola would be better off replacing their stand in Barcelona with an oxygen tent. Their handset announcements were not just disappointing - they were indescribably frightening. Regarding Alcatel-Lucent, it would appear that the French American cocktail is just not working out.
It looks like they are trying to mix oil and water and the question is whether their cooperation with NEC will create a success or end up as a losers club. We believe this is yet another American company that will be unsuccessful. Of course there are many Americans at the congress, but when you take into consideration the size of the country it appears that George Bush seems to be having more success in Iraq than the Americans are in this industry. Two exceptions are Qualcomm and Cisco - Paul Jacobs had a relaxed presentation and with the IPs they are handling, there is no reason not to lean back, enjoy the success and laugh all the way down to the bank. Regarding Cisco, it is always an experience to see their CEO John Chambers perform with a show that is something in between a TV Shop show and an American television preacher. It was without a doubt the show of the year; on the other hand that type of show probably comes over better at the CTIA than at the MWC. Simply put, there were very few American players that positively surprised us at the MWC.
