RETURN TO RESOURCES MAIN
2/15/2010
Mobile World Congress 2010
The first day of MWC2010 was quite something, it's difficult to comprehend the size of this event without actually seeing it. There are plenty of companies pres
ent and obviously, all the big names are here too.
One of the big announcements today, which caught on quite quickly between attendees and speakers was the initiative by mobile operators (These include Vodafone, China Mobile, Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, America Movil, NTT Docomo, Orange, Telecom Italia, Sprint and many more), to launch an open international applications platform. It has been temporarily dubbed "Wholesale Applications Community". The acronym has caught on even faster, and WAC is being tossed around about every 2 seconds.
One thing that is quite clear is that there is a lot of pressure on the MO's to compete at a consumer application level, seeing as they quite obviously missed the opportunity previously as the applications are transferred purely via data networks, the operators missed a lot of potential revenue. This initiative will be their attempt to recoup some of the lost revenue.
The idea is to create a single point of entry for developers. This would be to curb the explosion of various application stores for the various devices on the market. And to counter the 'specific device distribution' model which was pioneered by Apple.
It was met with a lot of aggressive feedback by a panel of venture capitalist from San Francisco. Typically, they boast impressive portfolios, however had no real reason to shun the WAC initiative. I disagree with them. I'm not saying this will work, however, a common open standard is required in this out-of-control market. At least from a development point of view. Developers require the open standard in order to increase their own revenue, and thus increase the amount of total revenue flowing through app-stores. I do, however, believe we will be seeing a whole lot of niching soon. Not everyone wants to shop at Walmart you know.
Another new development is something Samsung has called the Samsung Wave. It's the first smartphone based on it's own mobile OS, Bada. I personally played with this device, well, I played need for speed on it and i have to say - it rocks nuts. It will probably only be released in a few months time, however, when it does get released I reckon it might give the PSP a serious go. Gaming is not all it is good at, it has been designed to incorporate all the latest trends in device usage. SNS's, LBS, Gaming etc...
Retailing at about 330 Euro, I would easily get one of these. In my opinion, it makes up for the awful dogshow they called the Samsung Omnia.
As a quick note, it is estimated that approximately 50 new Android devices are being released at MWC2010. Being here has made me realise that Apple's days strategy of closing their, well, everything will cost them the greater part of market-share in the long-run. I'm scared of what Google are becoming. They are the greatest implementor of convergence, by far.
Well, that's all from me for now.
For some pictures of the Exhibition, click here. Photos by Donald Jackson.
(Originally written for www.20fourlabs.com by Stefano Sessa).