Mobile World Congress, the world’s largest gathering for the mobile industry was held last week in Barcelona. Organised by the Groupe Speciale Mobile Association (GSMA), the fast-paced four-day event brought in over 100,000 attendees. The theme for this year’s Mobile World Congress was “The Next Element” and below is our recap of the event:

CAKE exhibited in Hall 8.1 “App Planet” where we explored our mobile tracking functionality and new features with clients, prospects and industry leaders.

The show traditionally attracts big names within the mobile marketing sphere and this year was no exception. The highly anticipated session was host to Reed Hastings, Founder and CEO of Netflix who spoke about the importance of spotting trends and disruptions within industries in order to capitalise. Other keynote sessions centred on the theme of content becoming secondary. People want to physically see new releases and products shown in the exhibition halls and on the booths as opposed to online.

The Next Element

So what is “The Next Element?” Overall, this was in reference to mobile, and mobile connectivity. Mobile connectivity is becoming a fundamental part of our lives. This is not just limited to mobile phones and tablets; it also includes cars, homes and energy meters. This can be classified as a personal “internet of things,” as these are objects that will touch your everyday life. Ultimately, the products on show are based on a network of devices, vehicles and building sensors that collect and exchange data, thus giving it the name the “internet of things.” Some notable showcases included driverless cars and Kolibree introduced a smart toothbrush that measures how well you brush your teeth and sends the statistics to your smartphone!

VR and AI

Virtual Reality (VR) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) were the dominant themes again at this year’s event. Immersive technology devices were so prominent on the show floor with 360-degree video and the age recognition cameras seemed to be the most talked about products. For example, Samsung unveiled a 360-degree virtual travel app designed to allow people to travel back to past experiences and explore new worlds. The growing trend of virtual assistants, through the use of AI, was prominent on the show floor with many companies trying to replicate the highly successful Echo and Alexa from Amazon. A trend we can only predict will be seen globally, very soon.

5G

The introduction of 5G is essential in helping to deliver these immersive technologies, and of course this needs to be done in a smooth way – especially on a mobile device. However, 5G will not be rolled out until 2020 and coverage will depend on the availability of handsets and access to spectrum bands. It is expected that these “internet of things” services will support massive machine-type communication services once 5G has been fully implemented globally.

Overall, the event provided the team with great insights into new technological developments and an opportunity to discuss how our clients can maximise their usage of CAKE’s multi-channel mobile tracking abilities. We cannot wait for the additional MWC shows throughout the year!