Buenos días del Mobile World Congress. It begins. 5G, foldable phones, buckets of artificial intelligence … and fractious politics

MWC Barcelona (run by the GSMA) is an event that has aspects of all the technology fields I cover: artificial intelligence, blockchain, cybersecurity, e-discovery, the entire mobile ecosystem , plus just about every facet of social media and content production. In the real world, technology knowledge is not separated into neatly defined boxes. Topics overlap and bleed into one another. All knowledge is interconnected.

The most useful insights are often found at the intersection of diverse ideas.

And this year … a GDPR irony alert 🙂

25 February 2019 (Barcelona, Spain) — More than 120,000 telecom executives, mobile industry insiders, analysts, reporters, and gadget gawkers have descended on Barcelona this week for the Mobile World Congress. Oops. Sorry, new name. This year it became MWC Barcelona. And when you add in the vendor support staff, GSMA organiser staff etc. it comes to 160,000+.

Badge pick-up at the airport, Sunday afternoon

The Monday morning queue to get into MWC

I have six people covering this year, including two film crews, a digital graphics team and two reporters. Last year I opened a Barcelona office so coverage is now much easier.

This is just my intro/overview post. I will not have a “daily” blog blast. The next four days are jam packed for us. When we attend mega-events like the MWC we must force ourselves to take a break from the deafening cacophony of daily noise around us. We immerse ourselves and gather all the numerous pieces and set them next to one another. Then we can examine, contrast and compare. Then we can obtain a (somewhat) comprehensive overview.

But this afternoon we did jam out a short “intro” video to introduce part of the team in Barcelona:

This year’s team includes a reporter specialised in AI, and one specialised in internet finance and business models. And unlike last year (when it snowed!) it’s expected to be warm and sunny by the Balearic sea. It hit 16°C (60°F) today, and only goes up from there. Not that you can tell from inside the cavernous, fluorescent-lit Fira.

SETTING THE SCENE

The theme of this year’s MWC is “Intelligent Connectivity.” Is there is any other kind? Anyway, three big themes are converging at the center of the mobile universe this week: 5G, foldable phones … and fractious politics. If you thought there was a lot of 5G hype last year, steel yourself. Carriers are starting to roll out 5G networks for real in 2019, so nearly every device manufacturer is racing to position themselves as a leader in the newfangled technology. Realistically, these networks are only starting to be built, and almost no one can actually take advantage of the networks in their daily life for years.

As far as devices go, every phonemaker seems intent on releasing a folding phone this year (see below for details). To get one, be prepared to open something else that folds—your wallet—because these things are not cheap.

Huawei is one of the expo’s largest sponsors (a 3500 square meter space), but that’s not why it will be the talk of the Fira this week. The world’s largest network equipment seller is under fire from US officials, who accuse it of building backdoors into telecom systems on behalf of spies in Beijing. America’s attempts to enlist European allies in blacklisting the Chinese firm appear to be faltering, though, and Huawei will seek to win converts in Barcelona by trying to focus on technology, not geopolitics.

TOTAL INFORMATION AWARENESS

I brought a multi-lingual crew this year … Catalan, English, French, German, Italian, Spanish … because of the growing diversity of countries and languages every year. Plus more news and views from the expo from Mobile World Live, Engadget, The Verge, and Light Reading … and CNet coverage in English-Italian-Spanish … and El País and El Nacional (Catalan) makes it imperative.

WHAT EVERYONE IS TALKING ABOUT

Although the expo officially kicks off today, numerous tech companies jumped the gun Saturday and Sunday and announced a welter of new products. Here’s a rapid skim of just a few of the weekend’s announcements:

Huawei. The Chinese tech giant introduced a new version of the MateBook X Pro laptop with a massive, sharp screen that gives Apple a run for its money. Huawei also made waves with the Mate X, what it calls the “world’s fastest foldable 5G phone.” (Take that, Samsung.) Living on the edge will cost you a lot of yuan: The Mate X starts at a cool €2,299 ($2,600).

Xiaomi. According to the Chinese gadget-maker, “the 5G era has arrived!” You’ll probably hear a lot of people say that this week, but for Xiaomi it means a 5G-compatible version of the Mi Mix 3 it released last year (it also now has a slide-out selfie camera). The company also launched a new flagship device, the Mi 9, that has huge display, wireless charging, and three rear cameras for €449.

Nokia. HMD, the Finnish group which owns the rights to the iconic mobile brand, unveiled five new low-cost devices. These range from the €30 feature phone with a month-long battery life to the €700 flagship that features five (yes, five) cameras—a nightmare for trypophobics.

LG. The Korean tech company unveiled its (snappily?) named V50 ThinQ 5G, along with a few other devices. It also unveiled a bizarre case for the phone that features a second screen: Instead of following its rivals with a premium-priced folding phone, it made one with two screens that snap together. Simple! The ThinQ can also be controlled by hand gestures, so if you ever wanted to answer a call with the classic “talk to the hand” move, you’re in luck.

Microsoft. CEO Satya Nadella brought two of his top lieutenants to Barcelona to announce two new products, neither of which is a phone. (Disruptive!) Leather-jacketed cloud exec Julia White announced the Azure Kinect, a camera with depth-sensing capabilities and a seven-microphone array. Alex Kipman then announced the $3,500 HoloLens 2, an update to the four-year-old augmented reality headset.

WHAT MIGHT BE THE COOLEST SESSIONS AT MWC THIS YEAR

The emerging field of explainable AI (XAI) aims to create new AI methods that are accountable to human reasoning. The framework PwC is developing will ultimately help companies ensure they develop machine learning models that address potential concerns about trustworthiness. PwC is running sessions all week on XAI.

WHAT TO WATCH FOR TODAY

It’s all happening. Today was the first day of a front-loaded conference, which means there was a ton of sessions, networking events, and keynote speeches. In the main auditorium, things kicked off with just about every telco CEO talking about “Intelligently Connecting the World,” followed by panel discussion about ethics and diversity in AI. Microsoft’s Nadella and Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche will chat about how the two have reinvented their respective companies, while the CEOs of HTC, Vimeo, and Warner Music dip into “immersive content”.

More phones? More phones! Sony will unveil its newest phones bright and early, including one that’s rumored to have a funky 21:9 screen ratio. OnePlus is also expected to show off its new 5G phone at its booth when the show floor opens.

Not for the squeamish. Ever feel like you’re attached to your phone? This will become all too real for biohacking entrepreneur Edgar Pons Forn, who is getting implanted with a smart chip live on stage at the startup-focused 4YFN event. Alex Rodriguez Vitello will do the honors, and there will be “straight-up cameras and everything” to give attendees a view of the procedure, followed by tests of Edgar 2.0 paying for things and unlocking doors with his implant.

CHART INTERLUDE

Oh, and MWC is always a cornucopia of charts. One produced yesterday. The $2,600 Huawei Mate X costs a lot of dinero, to borrow a word from our Spanish hosts. What else can you get for that price? A lot of other phones:

OH, AND A “GDPR IRONY ALERT”

And this is the land of GDPR, yet reportedly 78% of attendees signed up for the “BREEZ” biometric access system to get slightly quicker entry into the expo. How it works:

I have encountered BREEZ at many conference venues and it is a combination of FaceCell and FingerCell technologies and designed to be used in low cost, low power, compact and/or mobile embedded devices such as doors, entry gates, handheld PCs and cell phones. It is fully compatible with many facial recognition technologies, and works with Windows CE, Windows Mobile and ARM Linux operating systems, and Android and iOS. The source code is available for developers and integrators who wish to implement applications on other device platforms. Oh, and you give MWC your “consent” to share it with insurance companies and law enforcement agencies. And … it will be merged with payment systems. Ah, convenience. It will always triumph.

Hope to see you during the show.

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