By Chris Lee

The organisers of last week’s Mobile World Congress (MWC) claim it was the biggest ever, with more attendees, exhibitors and top CEOs delivering keynote speeches than previous expos. There were also more than 10,000 apps on show in the App Planet section, but which developments were most significant according to industry experts? NMK tapped up its contact book for answers.

Mighty Finn

There were also a host of significant announcements, with troubled mobile handset maker Nokia pre-empting the show by announcing a platform tie-in with Microsoft, a move which apparently upset Google, whose Android platform is gaining huge traction in the mobile space.

According to freelance mobile journalist Gordon Kelly, this announcement stole the show before it had even started.

“The ramifications were felt throughout the show with contrasting opinions over whether it will be a success or not,” he told NMK. “Personally I think it is a massive win for Microsoft and a huge gamble by Nokia, which must be kicking itself for not buying Palm last year.”

Kelly added that Android continues to dominate, but he does not believe that the benefits of many hardware innovations such as near field communication (NFC) and multi-core processors will be felt until MWC 2012. 

Take a tablet

While last year’s MWC witnessed the rise of touchscreen phones, MWC 2011 was all about tablet devices, according to Andrew Lim, editor of mobile phone reviews site Recombu. In particular, Google Android’s new tablet operating system, Honeycomb, which he believes could prove a worthy adversary to the iPad. But Android is still playing catch-up in the app game, according to Recombu’s Lim.

“It's not that there aren't a lot of Android apps, it's just that most of them aren't very good. As Android users grow though we should see more good developers and big brands getting involved, which should hopefully lead to a better experience for everyone involved,” he said.

Shifting markets

Aside from the well-known mobile brands, niche players sought to demonstrate their technology at the expo, providing plenty of work for the marketers lobbying on their behalf.

“MWC is not just about funky apps for young people,” said Stu Campbell of lifestyle PR consultancy Fire PR. “Ease-of-use of mobile devices is also a key area and we saw that reflected in exhibitors such as [Fire PR client] Doro, which is doing some really interesting stuff with making mobile accessible to older and less dexterous phone users. I think MWC just gets better and better and I can’t wait for next year."

Xavier Adam, managing director of marketing consultancy AMC Network, said that Android talk dominated MWC 2011, but that there were signs of emerging market players from Asia.

“[There were] probably more Chinese and Asian companies than before and these are now moving up the value chain,” he concluded. “BlackBerry continues to talk of new products with not so many firm commitments. They may look back and wish they had stuck to the knitting, instead of trying to be all things to all people. The eco-excitement of last year seems to have gone. Were base stations powered by renewables a passing fad?”