If you are a phone geek, there was no better place on earth to be this week than Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona. MWC is the largest mobile trade show in the world, and there were a host of new products launches at the show. This was my first time at MWC, and I didn't quite know what to expect. It isn't quite as big as the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, but when you are lost in one of MWC's seven halls or waiting in a 45-minute cab line to get back to the city center, it certainly feels like it is. If you weren't able to make it to Barcelona, here are some of the key trends and launches that defined the event.
1. Predictable Samsung Galaxy S5 Launch
Without a doubt, the biggest handset at the show was the Galaxy S5. Samsung's Galaxy devices are the most successful Android phones on the market, going directly up against the Apple iPhone 5s in terms of features and sales. The Galaxy S5 is a step up from the Galaxy S4 in every way. The phone uses a 2.5GHz Qualcomm processor, has a bigger 5.1-inch screen, and a faster 16-megapixel camera that will make grabbing quick photos even easier. The phone also has some new tools for managing battery life, like a power-saving mode that can power basic features for 24 hours on just 10 percent of a charge. Throw in a built-in fingerprint sensor and heart rate monitor, and you have a handset that is like no other on the market.
Even so, the response to the Galaxy S5 was fairly muted among the tech press. Maybe it was because the timing was completely predictable or that the launch event was relatively sedate (by Samsung standards, anyway). Or maybe it is because Samsung has developed a reputation for adding incremental features every year. Regardless, the Galaxy S5 is the phone that will have the biggest impact in 2014, in part because it will be available on every carrier in the U.S.
2. Big Vendors Debuting Wearable Devices
MWC 2014 also showed that wearables are going mainstream. Vendors like Basis and FitBit have been building trackers for some time, but almost every consumer electronics vendor is jumping into the fray. Samsung added the Gear 2 and Gear 2 Neo to its smartwatch lineup and threw in an even more intriguing Gear Fit, which delivers step tracking, heart rate monitoring, and displays Android notifications on its OLED touch screen. Sony already has a SmartWatch, but at MWC it showed off its SmartBand fitness tracker and life logging platform. Even Huawei jumped in with its TalkBand B1.
3. The $25 Smartphone Push
Living in the U.S., where the vast majority of phone purchases are subsidized by service contract fees, it is easy to forget just how expensive smartphones are. The retail price of a top-of-the-line smartphone is between $650-$800. Even low-end models rarely cost less than $150. At MWC there were a number of efforts to bring that number down to help connect the developing world. Nokia announced the $120 Nokia X, an Android-based handset that is priced to be more affordable than the Lumia line, but higher end than its Asha line. Mozilla launched an initiative to build a $25 Firefox OS-based handset with the help of Shanghai-based Spreadtrum. Vendors have been trying to do this for years, of course, but it seems like the cost of components are finally low enough to make this happen.
4. Carriers Terrified of WhatsApp
Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg held a keynote at the show, but all anyone wanted to talk about was WhatsApp, the messaging application that he bought for $16 billion. Again, in the U.S., where unlimited SMS gets bundled into almost every service contract, the appeal of WhatsApp often gets lost. In the rest of the world, where SMS charges are sold a la carte, WhatsApp is an attractive way to cheaply send text and images to friends. What's more, WhatsApp executives announced at the show that it would probably add some kind of voice service soon. Suffice to say, these kind of over-the-top messaging applications scare carriers all over the world.
5. Privacy Control Is a Key Feature
When news broke late last year of an effort to build a truly secure consumer smartphone, I was skeptical. It sounded like a great Kickstarter campaign, but building hardware is hard. Just a few months later, Blackphone is showing off working phones with a custom Android OS and a host of secure communication features. The Blackphone can secure your texts, calls, and local storage using encryption, but unfortunately not your email. (Sadly, no one can.) Nonetheless, the phone was one of the most popular at the show; it ships in June.
The Blackphone faces a few hurdles in the U.S. First, it doesn't have a single U.S. carrier supporting it. Second, it doesn't offer E-911 functionality, which is currently required for all handsets sold in the U.S. And finally, it costs $629, completely unsubsidized. Even so, the appeal of the phone is undeniable. I can't wait to get one into the lab for testing.
6. Fujitsu Tactile Sensation Screen
For me the fun of any big show is the stuff at the margins. These are the products that may not ever see a retail store, but you can actually play with on the show floor. At MWC, one of those products was the Fujitsu screen with dynamic haptic feedback. It looks like an ordinary touch screen, but it uses sonic waves to create the feeling of texture on a completely flat touch screen. Close your eyes and you would swear you were feeling sand, or a vault dial, or even a drop of water. It was very cool and something that could add appealing dimension to any touch-based device.
7. 5G is Going to Be Big—Whatever 5G Is
The other big trend at the show was 5G. Everyone was talking about 5G, but there was absolutely no consensus about what exactly 5G is, let alone how it would work. Dr. Wen Tong and Dr. Peiying Zhu of Huawei wrote this, let's just call it "promising," description of 5G in the Mobile World Congress show daily: "For 5G network operators, bottlenecks for creating and implementing new services will be eliminated. For 5G network users the possibilities for creating new mobile application innovations will be endless."
Sounds pretty good, right? That definitely answers the why 5G question. For how, what, where, and when of 5G we will have to wait for Mobile World Congress 2015. I'll be there.
For more, check out our MWC wrap-up in the video below.
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