Mobile World Congress, popularly known as GSMA MWC is the biggest event for mobile phone developers and act as a launch pad for new devices. Fluper as a leading Mobile App Development Company considers MWC as a historic event which we will cover through this blog, paying attention to its history in particular and what events led to innovation in mobile technology that we use today.
Before we go further and cover all the events that led to success in mobile technology over the years, let us have a look at what MWC is all about?
What MWC is All About?
MWC is the world’s largest exhibition for the mobile industry and is held every year in Barcelona, Spain. The exhibition incorporates various leaders which include various eminent executives representing global mobile operators, device manufacturers, technology providers and vendors from all over the world.
This is an annual event as mentioned above, is being held since 2006 in the city of Barcelona, Spain. It finds its background in the GSM Congress organized by the GSM Association which began to operate in 1990 in Rome with a few hundred attendees. The Congress eventually in 2006 shifted its HQ in Barcelona from Cannes due to better facilities and infrastructure.
The event takes place for over 4 days and gathers around 1,00,000 professionals including thousands of CEOs from more than 200 countries, famous journalists from leading media houses and millions of online users. It has the ability to generate 500 million Euros ($565 M).
Importance of MWC
It provides an opportunity for the largest companies in the world to present its innovative solutions in latest technologies like Artificial Intelligence, AR/VR, Robotics, and Drones, etc.
It is not just limited to work at new technologies but provides room for innovations in the software and Hardware field.
It lays the foundation for new businesses to update them with the latest trends that will rule the world in the next years or decades.
Moreover, it gives an idea on the revenue generation and jobs the new technology could raise in various fields.
Also Read: Highlights of MWC19 Shanghai 2019
Historical Events in Mobile World Congress
Let us shift our focus to the history of MWC, believe me, this has been a great few hours to cover this for you. Without further ado, let’s dive in straight!
MWC 2006: Nokia Started to Rule
In 2006, the 3GSM as it was called back then was held in Barcelona and had an attendance of more than 50,000 people.
There were a few sliders and candy bars but the clamshell design was highly popular that time.
Some of the biggest attendees in the conference were Samsung, Nokia, Motorola, and Sony Ericsson.
Nokia 8800 was awarded the best GSM handset award while Motorola RAZR V3X was awarded the best 3G handset award.
MWC 2007: Samsung and Nokia Battled
The year 2007 saw a great buzz on videos on mobile including video calls, movies, and TV.
Motorola came up with Razr brand while Blackberry showed off its 8800.
LG came up with Prada while HTC incorporated Windows in mobile handsets.
Samsung SGH-D900 won best GSM handset award while Sony Ericsson K800 Cyber-shot was named the best 3G handset award.
MWC 2008: Walkman Phone became Popular
The year was dominated by Sony Ericsson and W910 Walkman phone.
Xperia line came into the picture with its X1 model running on Windows Mobile 6.1 which was designed and manufactured by HTC.
Nokia also came with its N96 model but most people wanted a better answer to iPhone devices.
W910 model of Walkman phone won the award for the best handset.
MWC 2009: Remember Inq?
Inq mobiles were the main highlight of 2009 as the handset Inq1 won the best handset award. The company recently closed in 2014 though.
It came up with social networking features like Facebook, Skype, and Windows live messenger.
Sony came up with the first 12-MP handset.
Vodafone unveiled its HTC magic which was the first Android Phone to debut at MWC.
3GSM was renamed as MWC in 2008
MWC 2010: Brought Android to a Large Extent
The year saw a high inflow of Android devices which included Garmin, Sony Ericsson, Motorola, Acer, and LG.
HTC phones were the most popular phone in the conference with its Legend and Desire phones.
HTC Hero won the award for the best Handset award.
Microsoft Windows Phone 7, Nokia and Intel’s MeeGo operating systems entered the market.
MWC 2011: Samsung Was Everywhere
HTC released Facebook phones, the Salsa and ChaCha which failed miserably.
Sony Ericsson came up with PlayStation phone, Xperia plays but failed as well.
Eric Schmidt talked about combining Tablet wit Smartphone OS i.e. Gingerbread in the next version of Android.
IPhone4 won best mobile device award though it was seriously challenged by Samsung Galaxy S2.
The powerful, slim, and affordable Samsung Galaxy S2 became the talk of the town.
MWC 2012: A reminder from Nokia
Samsung won the award for the best manufacturer and Smartphone of 2012.
Samsung replaced Apple as the top sought after a phone with its S3 model being highly anticipated one.
A Hall was named App planet which included speakers discussing on HTML5, NFC, and payments via mobile.
Nokia came up with 41 MP camera phone Nokia 808.
ZTE released low budget phones for Android and Windows platform.
MWC 2013: Samsung Galaxy S3 Ruled
Some new Android phones came into picture which included Sony Xperia Z, HTC One, and LG Optimus G Pro.
Sony Xperia Z Tablet made huge noise with its slim Android Tablet
Samsung continued its dominance with its Galaxy S3 winning Smartphone of the year
Google’s Asus launched Nexus 7 which was awarded best Tablet of the year.
MWC 2014: Wearable Came into Picture
The year saw a flurry of Wearable devices with various big brands launching wearable devices.
Nokia came up with its Android debut with Nokia X and X+ devices.
Samsung’s Gear Fit won the attention of the masses while HTC, Motorola, and Huawei also joined the force with their smartwatches.
HTC one got the award for the best Smartphone of the year while iPad Air got the best Tablet prize.
MWC 2015: IoT, VR and Wearable Devices Came to Public
Samsung’s Galaxy S6 Edge was the talk of the town with its edges looking stunning and better than other Smartphone.
New players like Gionee, Xiaomi, along with ZTE made affordable yet attractive phones.
Most of the devices supported 4G network making it a necessity.
MediaTek announced it’s Wearable Shoe tracks your kid’s location and gets charged wirelessly.
Virtual Reality could easily be made a part of one’s life with HTC Re Vive VR headset.
Enterprise mobility solutions improved with Mobile payments, IoT, Wearable, and SAP.
MWC 2016: Xiaomi Became Popular
LG G5 came up with the first removable battery capability phone while having a metal chassis.
Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge+ came up with Qualcomm Snapdragon or Exynos 8 Octa-core processor and a 4 GB RAM part from 12 MP Rear Camera and 3600 MAh Battery.
Samsung’s Gear 360 took users spotlight with it being a 360-degree video recording tripod camera which had microSD card capable of storing 128 GB space.
Xiaomi Mi5 was a low-cost phone had snapdragon 820, 4 GB RAM, 128 GB capability of storage, a 16MP Sony IMX camera sensor at just $360.
MWC 2017: New Technology Incorporated in Mobiles
Qualcomm announced a new Development kit and Head mounted display while Oculus reduced the prices making it purchasable at $600.
GSMA predicted that by 2025 nearly 1 Billion people will have access to 5G devices.
Augmented Reality to grow by 81 percent from 2016 to 2024.
Huawei is taking steps to improve cloud architecture by releasing its products.
MWC 2018: Google Helps Developers in App Integration
Pop-up cameras of Huawei became the talk of the town which was nothing but camera built into the keyboard.
Nokia phones will run of Android One platform which includes snapdragon 835 powered Nokia 8 Sorocco.
Google Announced a new app integration that will let Android Mobile App Developers build apps with ease.
SanDisk launched a 400 GB SD card.
IoT, 5G, AR, VR continued to improve with companies launching new devices.
MWC 2019: New Devices with Immersive Experience
The theme of this year was Internet Connectivity
IoT, 5G, Artificial Intelligence, and Big Data are the real things to be focused on.
Microsoft HoloLens 2, a next-generation mixed reality product was launched which will make holograms even better.
Galaxy Fold came up with 12 GB RAM and 512 GB internal storage.
Azure Kinect DK, a new software development kit launched
1 TB micro SD cards of Sandisk and Micron launched
5G Phones of Xiaomi, LG and ZTE are also launched at MWC
MWC Shanghai 2019
MWC Shanghai 2019 will be held from 26th June to 28th June with a focus on next-generation technologies like 5G, IoT, and Big Data. With just a few days away, many big companies are sure to announce something big in these technologies. It is touted that almost 60, 000 professionals are expected to attend this conference.
List of Keynote Speakers as Announced by GSMA for this Event:
Mathew Oommen, President, Reliance Jio
Ke Ruiwen, Chairman and CEO, China Telecom
Sophie Eom, Co-founder, and CEO, Adriel
Frank Meng, Chairman, Qualcomm China
Li Guohua, President, China Unicom
Irfan Wahab Khan, Head of Emerging Asia and CEO, Telenor Pakistan
Dan Zhuang, Executive Director and President, YOFC
We hope this blog enlightens you to get updated with how mobile technology evolved over the years. Fluper, as a leading Mobile App Development Company will continue to update you with the latest happenings and events from the technology world.
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