I recently returned from Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2013 and after browsing through the halls and attending a few of the lectures, I would like to provide a few highlights of the show.
The mobile war is not over yet
The mobile war is two-fold, the device makers and OS. On each front we see innovation and a struggle over the place in our pocket. If you thought that Apple and Samsung were going to rule the smartphone device market for good, MWC 2013 showed clearly that HTC, RIM and Nokia are fighting back big-time. Other vendors such as Huawei are improving their devices as well, so we haven't heard the last tune in this symphony yet.
On the OS front, Firefox is strongly pushing their newly released OS, announcing new partners including device manufacturers, chipset vendor and operators.
This topic deserves a separate post, coming out shortly, so stay tuned.
VoLTE & RCS starting to show off
Last year at MWC, VoLTE and SRVCC (Single Radio Voice Call Continuity) were already highlighted by several chipset vendors and device manufacturers. Even though launches of VoLTE services were already announced by MetroPCS in the US and LGU+ and SK Telecom in Korea, Verizon is viewed by many as a leader with its VoLTE plans. Given Verizon's decision to push back its VoLTE launch plans to early 2014, the whole ecosystem is experiencing a similar slowdown.
Having said that, MWC 2013 did provide new announcements and demos related to the VoLTE ecosystem, including Ericsson announcing a VoLTE and SRVCC device demo as part of its must-sees at MWC 2013. They also provide a nice overview of facts and a service examples video clip. China Mobile has announced that it demoed a video call over a TD-LTE network together with Quanta, the tablet manufacturer, and Radvision (disclaimer: the company I work for), the VoLTE/IMS client vendor.
Mobile payment and NFC
Mobile payment and NFC (near-field communication) have been around for a few years now, and look to be the new bet of the operators for creating new revenue sources. There are about 2.7 billion unbanked people in the developing countries, and according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, there are 10 million unbanked or underbanked households in the U.S.
Mobile payment and mobile banking are viewed as a technology that can give access to banking services to a large part of those currently unbanked. Across Africa, Latin America and Asia about 1.7 billion of the 2.7 billion who are unbanked do have a mobile phone. Now, tie this with efforts of operators such as Vodafone to provide access to mobile services in such developing countries, in places where there is no electricity and charging is by solar panels or by turning bicycle pedals. Add to that the announced target of the new Firefox OS to enable building of low-cost smartphones such as the new ZTE Open to be sold by Telefonica in Latin America and Spain.
On a panel at MWC, Randall Stephenson, Chairman and CEO of AT&T, referred to Isis, the joint venture of AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile for Mobile Wallet that gives the banks one unified way to work with the leading US operators and keep them (the operators) in the revenue loop. Question is, how does this compare with Google Wallet and their aspirations? Over-the-top providers (OTTs) have reinvented rich communications services and now, years after, operators are still struggling to launch RCS just to compete with what is already available.
Mobile device manufacturers targeting the enterprise IT department
Mobile security is not a new kid in town, but at MWC 2013 it appeared already as a grownup, with leading mobile device manufacturers presenting technologies supporting the BYOD trend.
Enterprise IT departments are struggling to secure the enterprise data stored on employees' devices that are connected regularly to their networks. BlackBerry addressed this issue from design of their devices and service, as they were targeted at enterprise customers from the start. But the leading smartphone brands (iOS and Android) implemented only limited ways for the IT department to manage this threat.
A year ago, at MWC 2012 there were many companies introducing mobile management and security solutions that ride on top of the smartphone OS. This year we see such solutions coming from the device manufacturer with the announcement of Knox by Samsung. Basically, according to Samsung, Knox will allow the employee to keep his or her personal information private and far from the eyes of the employer, while the IT department will be able to manage, control and secure the enterprise side of the device, allowing it to connect to the enterprise systems without worrying about information leakage.
This is an important step for Samsung as BlackBerry starts to show recovery signs, and these recovery signs of BlackBerry are what make mobile enterprise usage a threat for the leading device brands Samsung and Apple. This is simply because if IT departments find the new BlackBerry a good enough Smartphone (which it wasn't until now) that also provides the security functions they need to protect corporate information while keeping user privacy, they might give BlackBerry another look. An employee getting from their employer a new BlackBerry that is comparable to other leading smartphone devices will have less incentive to pay good personal money for a different device. Samsung with its new Knox is aiming to be the first choice of the IT departments.
I believe we haven't seen the last move in this field; the other major device manufacturers will follow.
WebRTC
MWC 2013 showed that WebRTC is coming big time. This is mainly because of what booths it was present in at MWC and the implementation scenarios it was part of.
More on this can be found on a blog post I wrote for BlogGeek.me titled Operators are not missing out on WebRTC at MWC 2013.
The connected car
The field of the connected car is no longer left for external companies to master; the leading car manufacturers are moving full speed ahead in an effort not to lose the eyeballs of the driver and passengers to other companies.
Steve Grisky, Vice Chairman at GM Motors, presented that company's vision and plans at MWC. GM will provide a complete set of services including entertainment, communication, navigation and safety. GM is already running some of these services through their www.OnStar.com initiative, but it looks like their targets are far beyond that. GM is also targeting developers and has created a partnership with AT&T for that purpose. They are providing APIs for developers that could bring the application revolution we experienced on smartphones to the car with applications designed for this specific need and in a safe manner.
Renault is also making its way along a similar route, with its R-Link having already over 50 applications, a number further to be extended by developers.
Thinking of the opportunities these APIs bring when combined with NFC, location information, usage patterns and "car needs" based on diagnostics, brings one to a conclusion there is a new market and ecosystem to emerge and for companies to take advantage of.
*Opinions presented in this blog post are the author's personal opinions and do not necessarily represent those of his employer.
