MWC 2015A recap of the key announcements, highlights and trends

The key themes at this year’s Mobile World Congress (MWC) were

big device launches as usual, the Internet of Things (IoT or Internet

of Everything), wearables, personalised consumer experiences based

on big data, 5G, AdTech, analytics, privacy and security. We also

found some interesting examples of mobile tech that saves lives.

To help you better understand what all of the above will mean to

you and your business we’ve created this summary that covers

everything you need to know from MWC15.

Devices - SamsungThe Samsung Galaxy S6 is as big as it gets for MWC. This is

the equivalent of the iPhone 6 for Samsung and we are not

disappointed. This is big news simply because it looks amazing. The

S6 comes in two versions, one with a “normal” screen and the other

with the Edge screen that has a display that curves around both

sides. However we question if it has much value beyond looks and

fast navigation on the right side menu.

Other highlights of the device includes the new processor by

Samsung, an improved fingerprint reader, payments with LoopPay

and wireless charging.

Devices - HuaweiThe 2nd generation of the Talkband, or Talkband B2, looks a lot

slicker than its predecessor and includes a gyroscope improving

movement tracking. It’s not likely to make a big splash in North

America or Europe but it’s interesting to understand what wearables

are trending in China at the moment.

The Huawei Watch on the other hand looks like one of the most

beautifully designed Android Wear devices. This is expected to be

available in about 20 markets from around June-July, so a lot can

happen between now and then.

Devices - HTC & LGCombining the M7 and M8, the HTC One M9 is the flagship device

from HTC with a new design, processor, 20 megapixel camera,

Dolby Surround sound, integration with various home sound systems

and more. HTC also announced HTC Grip which is HTC’s first

wearable with fitness trackers, GPS, G sensor, Gyro, Compass.

The Grip works with both Android and iOS.

The most exciting news from LG was the Urbane LTE smartwatch

(pictured) - one of the first smartwatches to work standalone without

a smartphone (instead the Urbane relies on a smartwatch connection).

This is another example of how smartwatches and traditional watches

are slowly merging. In addition to this LG announced four new mid-

range smartphones including Magna, Spirit, Leon and Joy.

What this means for you

We are excited about the Samsung S6 and HTC M9 devices. They

have a lot of technology improvements, so in terms of specification

they beat the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. More importantly however they

both focus on the overall customer experience this time which is

great. These are nice come-backs from Samsung and HTC so

expect good sales and customer adaptation.

On the wearable side we liked the looks of several of the new

devices including the Huawei and LG but neither of these will sell

in big volumes in the Americas and Europe. The Apple Watch

outshined all other wearables despite not being launched by the

time of the show. This means that from a brand or start-up point of

view, the Apple Watch is what most developers will target first. And

that’s despite the fact that most Apple Watch functionality is already

supported by Android Wear.

Internet of ThingsThis year MWC followed on the success of last years ‘Connected

City’ with the Innovation City where IoT was showcased in its four

key themes: Consumer devices/electronics connected to the Internet

at home or anywhere else where they might be useful, connected

cars, connected infrastructure and devices in public spaces and

enterprises and infrastructure solutions to manage connected

devices. Generally most of the exhibitions consisted of the last three

with connected cars from Audi, Porsche and others, examples of

how IoT is used to cut energy costs in connected cities through

smart grids as well as hundreds of companies offering software and

cloud solutions to manage IoT devices. The only exception was the

connected toothbrush from last year’s congress.

What this means for you

Although the Innovation City was a highlight at MWC this year and

had plenty of interesting demos, we can’t help but feel there is

still quite a way to go before the core infrastructure in cities and

companies are connected. The connected home, car and city

are almost a reality, but at the moment the devices are still not

connected to each other in a meaningful or intelligent way. Data

analytics, analysis and AI will play a critical role here.

This will be a gradual process and although there has been progress

since last year, truly smart cities, enterprises and the connected life

is still a few years away. Now is the time to experiment and find ways

for your organization to disrupt your industry.

There was also one area focusing on green mobility with the aim of

reducing environmental impact from transportation, using renewable

energy to power our telecommunication networks and allowing

citizens to better understand and therefore reduce their carbon

dioxide footprint. Entire cities can soon be monitored and systems

set up wirelessly reducing the need for physical infrastructure and

with notable cost and energy savings.

Internet of Things TechnologiesProGlove Smart glove gathering data that helps you work faster and safer

GasLinkA Remote monitoring of tanks and meters for the gas industry

QuakeShare (safety companion) Solution for disaster release in seismic

zones including sensors, relief assistance, satellite images and more

Uniquicom SafeLocator Suite Tracking and positioning of people, vehicles

and assets in- and outdoor, monitoring of works and distributed sensors

Onköl Base station for the home that connects all health devices to

send the data safely to your chosen caregiver

DomoCare Sensors and monitoring to alert caregivers when fragility

has been detected at a seniors’ home

microBSP Remotely controllable medical device that actively diffuses

drugs through the skin

10

There is a myriad of new devices for use in the majority of industries

that can revolutionise monitoring and tracking of people, vehicles

and data. We expect further accelerated growth in this area as new

gadgets can be created through crowdfunding with budgets as small

as 100,000 dollar. Make sure you stay up-to-date with the gadgets,

sensors and devices with potential of impacting your organisation.

Start by testing them in pilots and learn more about how IoT can

help you.

There was a separate event called IoT Stars where start-ups

competed for attention. The speed of innovation and potential

for disruption in this space is staggering.

We will be keeping a close eye on the best and most effective

gadgets and start-ups, providing information on the many use

cases for both industry and commercial use.

What this means for you

WearablesWhat excites us most in the wearables section are the specialist

wearable devices such as Garmin for extreme sports or wearables

used within healthcare. A new generation of devices will be able to

track and measure data related to all aspects of health including

hormone levels, glucose and similar blood analytics.

This will be invaluable in presenting an overall representation of

health. It will be particularly useful in the management of conditions

such as diabetes, inflammatory diseases and migraines for example.

Expect lots of development in this space over the next 12 months.

What this means for you

Everybody talks about wearables but few people, even at an industry

event like MWC, is wearing one. All the device manufacturers

have smartwatches and health bands in their stands and there are

also lots of companies that we’ve never heard of before offering

wearables. There was also a dedicated area for wearables this year

which clearly shows the hype. However, the biggest anticipation is

the Apple Watch.

Rather than speculating about the usefulness of wearables get one

or several for yourself and figure out what is useful for you, ask

friends how they use them and do your research on successful

use cases before investing time and money in wearable apps.

Personalised Customer ExperiencesAnother thing everybody talks about is providing personalised

customer experiences based on big data, but few consumer-oriented

companies actually do it very well (Amazon being the exception).

IBM talks about Watsons, the operators are talking about how their

customer data can be used to personalise experience and target

offers, the telecom network manufacturers are selling these benefits

for the equipment and services while the consultants are talking

about how they can support with the strategy and execution.

What this means for you

This year we will see a lot of successful and unsuccessful show

cases of personalised experiences delivered in-store, on the move

and in our homes. Based on our experience this will require a lot

of testing, optimization and time to perfect. On wearables and

smartwatches this will be particularly important with the small

screen as the content needs to be relevant.

5GAt the moment 5G is only conceptually specified but everyone wants

to leverage the marketing buzz of 5G. The only thing all the vendors

and operators seem to agree on is that we need better and deeper

network coverage, more bandwidth, support for an exponential

increase in devices, better utilisation of spectrum and lower latency.

And hopefully that’s exactly what 5G will do.

What this means for you

Unless you’re a network telecommunication provider, don’t worry

too much. 5G is expected to launch around 2020 and we will see at

least another 10 years for 4G/LTE to continue to improve and serve

our needs.

Adtech & AnalyticsLast year the growth in mobile advertising was close to 100%, but

advertising spend is still far behind compared to the increased time

people spend on their mobiles. When companies do spend money

on mobile advertising however, they want to make sure they are

getting return on their investment. The result of this could be seen at

this year’s MWC with more and more specialized analytics providers.

We thought that this sector had reached is peak, but it’s continuing

to develop with the help of more niche analytics tools. Additionally,

SK Telecom showed off interactive billboards that can change

content based on the audience in front of it. This has the potential

of changing the whole way ad targeting in a physical space looks

like today.

What this means for you

This is an incredibly exciting space and expect to see even more

advancements and innovative solutions throughout the year. We

expect ad spend to gradually match the time consumers spend on

mobile with more detailed analytics being developed to cater for

this growing market. Highly targeted media will be used to reach

consumers and if done right, this could potentially change the whole

way ad targeting in a digital as well as physical space look like over

the next year.

Re-evaluate the ad networks and tools that you are using today

because the technology is rapidly development and so is the ROI.

Companies like Adjust, Localytics, Swrl and Kochava that no one

had heard about two years ago are now starting to pay key roles in

this space.

Security & PrivacyEvery company would like to give their employees access to

company data, but they are concerned about the security when

opening up for use of company platforms. The companies that

give access often add such a high number of authentication layers

that it soon becomes impossible to use. We discovered some new

technologies that could help you get around this. A great example

was a new form of eye recognition (not using the iris this time, but

the blood veins in your eye) which only required a 1 megapixel

camera to work. Interesting for banks and other entities that require

a high level of security and is operating all around the world, serving

employees and clients with shifting maturity levels when it comes

to devices.

Security & Privacy (continued)As for privacy, we were constantly tracked via the MWC event app

while on the show room floor. The MWC organizer can presumably

pinpoint your location down to 3-5 meters. In theory they will be

able to see how each visitor using the app is moving around, how

much time s/he spends at each stand or the time it takes you to

finish the sandwich you had for lunch. Whether this is a good or bad

thing we’ll leave unsaid for now. Hopefully the data collected can be

leveraged to create an even richer event experience next year!

And with congress visitors being concerned about using the public

wifi, companies like MYMobileSecurity (disclaimer: DMI client) offered

solutions that helped protect your device from malware attacks.

What this means for you

With more and more data being collected about us, we are entering

unchartered territory in terms of privacy. Measures must be taken to

ensure that user data is collected with prior consent and not used

for anything other than the original purpose. However, security must

also be of the highest concern in both enterprise and consumer

data access. With the recent high-profile security breaches, this

need has been highlighted time and time again. Privacy and Security

professionals are already looking in the best way of balancing the

need for data collection and allowing for an adequate level of privacy.

The difficulty will be in devising regulations that truly safeguard users

in all situations. However, with the dominant enterprise mobility

theme being data security and privacy, there will surely be a lot more

happening in this part of the mobile industry this year.

Mobile Technology That Saves LivesFinally, we also came across some technology which clearly shows

the power of mobility in all areas, including where lives are in danger.

Global Warning System (GWS) Ever thought about what to do or

where to go if a major incident such as an earthquake, tsunami,

war, riot or toxic leak happens while you’re travelling? GWS is an

add-on to your travel insurance that uses mobile technology to

warn you if something happens in the vicinity (city or country) of

where you are and provides localized advise on what to do including

recommendations on hospitals and how to get out of the country.

Where do we sign up?

Mobile Technology That Saves Lives (continued)Man Down A little bit of self-promotion as DMI demonstrated a “Man

Down” solution as part of our innovation lab. This solution monitors

field workers, government personnel, security personnel and people

in dangerous environments or under threat and provides an alert to a

central monitor center in case anything happens that might pose a

risk or if the person falls. The system automatically asks the person

to confirm if OK using secure biometrics (voice, finger print and eye

scanner) and if there is no response it alerts the appropriate authority

to the location. The solution works with smartphones as well as

wearables and sensors.

In summary we think this was the best and most exciting Mobile

World Congress to date. The event proved that it plays a critical role

in bringing people together across industries to discuss, experience

and influence the future of mobile technology. It also showed how

mobility is transforming every industry, our infrastructure, society and

our daily lives. We can’t wait until 2016!

Let us know if we missed anything from the event that was important

to you? Key trends, technologies or companies.

Also, don’t miss out on reading our 2015 mobile trends report and

other trend updates from the mobile industry.

Fighting for a world full of mobile solutions since 2005

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