MWC 2010: What to expect

Another year and another Mobile World Congress show is upon us. But what can we expect from the big mobile players and how do they plan to outshine the announcements and unveilings of 2009's event?

By Maggie Holland, 13 Feb 2010 at 22:49

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Mobile World Congress (MWC) is the event in the mobile calendar. Last year’s show played home to more than 50,000 people and saw the unveiling of the HTC Magic, Vodafone’s vision for handsets for the developing world and talk of mobile payments, touch screens and more.

This year’s event is expected to deliver as many surprises as it is the expected. We run down our top quotes of last year's events as well as sharing our top 10 predictions for MWC 2010.

“Mobile communications impacts nearly every facet of our lives, whether it's how we conduct business, how we access information and experience content or how we stay connected to friends and family," said Michael O'Hara, chief marketing officer for the GSM Association (GSMA), in a statement.

"Now, more than ever, the Mobile World Congress provides a forum for participants across the broad mobile communications ecosystem to debate the issues impacting our industry today and to explore the technologies, solutions and services that will shape the mobile future."

Lots of bold statements were made at MWC 2009. Here are our top five quotes from the event.

1) “Traditional financial services are often too costly and inconvenient for people who earn less than $2 a day to obtain, and too expensive for banks to provide." Bob Christen, director of Financial Services for the Poor initiative at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

2) “Making Skype available everywhere through mobile devices is essential to fulfilling our vision of ‘enabling the world’s conversations’” Scott Durchslag, Skype chief operating officer.

3) “The mobile industry has a pivotal role to play in tackling environmental issues and this programme is an important step that could lead to huge savings in resources, not to mention convenience for consumers." Rob Conway, GSMA chief executive.