What to expect at Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2013

MWC is the largest mobile trade show with more than 65,000 people expected to attend this year in Barcelona’s Fira Gran Via and an opportunity for the mobile industry to showcase its latest phones, tablets, apps and services.

Connected Cities is likely to take a centre stage at MWC expanding on the connected home and car concepts from last year.  It is estimated that by 2020, there will be 25 billion connected devices, and at least half will be connected by mobile technology which is an estimate regularly being revised upwards.

Examples will include a connected bike that monitors performance, remote health monitoring, intelligent logistics services and smart technology becoming the hub of the home, and in-car services that change the way we consume information on the move.   The global operators will be positioning themselves as vital partners in order to extend their relationship with the end customers.

Device and Platform vendors are increasingly moving away from MWC for product launches. Apple has never exhibited and last year sent out the invite for the new iPad product launch during MWC. Samsung will be exhibiting but will not be launching their Galaxy S4 at the event.

Google and its mobile operating system Android will not be exhibiting this year for a change but will be supporting its partners and device manufacturers and with the growing Android domination it doesn’t really need to push its brand like it has at previous events.

Blackberry also don’t seem to be exhibiting according to the GSMA exhibition list, launching the BB10 on January 31^st this would have been a good opportunity to get their smartphones out on show. The third place spot in the OS wars is still available and likely to see Microsoft, BB and even Mozilla’s Firefox OS continue to battle for this position.

Mobile payments will be in the spotlight at MWC, the wallet is  becoming more than just payments and  including loyalty, advertising and offers.  Announcements from online players, financial companies, retailers and operators are expected as they battle for prime position in this space. For NFC to succeed both handsets and merchants will need enabled NFC terminals, with the slow rate of adoption and no Apple support it is no longer expected to be the main out-of-band payment method and likely to have a slow death in my view but interesting to see the GSMA select four partners for mobile contactless payment experience for 3,500 delegates at MWC who will receive a Xperia smartphone provided by Sony.

Rich Communication Services (RCS) is an industry initiative to harmonize rich address books and offer enhanced messaging and voice, video calling and the ability to share documents and photos simultaneously during calls.  Joyn is the consumer facing brand for RCS and was officially announced at last year’s MWC by GSMA with a new version of the specification.   DT recently reported implementation problems, deployments in Spain have gone very quiet and the PR machine has already started with SK Telecoms claiming 1m subscribers to Joyn, which is very timely.

In the consumerization of IT, Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) is a phrase that has become widely adopted to refer to employees who bring their own devices such as smartphones, tablets and laptops to the workplace for access to corporate data.  The demand to secure corporate data across a wider range of mobile platforms will continue at MWC and now focus more on improving productivity with enterprise applications, platforms to develop, test and deploy apps with application stores to distribute the apps within the enterprise. New entrants to the enterprise mobility market and more product announcements should be expected.  As more data is consumed with smartphones in the enterprise a wider range of tools and services to monitor and track usage, set polices and compress data in some cases will emerge.

You can keep up to date on the developments at MWC 2013 and hear more of my views via Twitter – Sandeep_r

Must have iPad 2 Applications

It’s been a while since my last post on tablets back in November and a lot has changed.  I recently got an iPad 2 which is my first tablet, having an iPhone I was expecting a lot of applications for the iPad and was slightly disappointed.

Most iPhone applications work on the iPad but are designed for the iPhone and don’t make use of the extra screen estate.  Apple currently have over 65,000 applications for the iPad, here are some must haves –

BBC iPlayer – The iPlayer app is very useful to catch up on TV whilst on the move, it works well with a good internet connection.

4oD Catch up – Similar to iPlayer lets you watch your favorite channel 4 shows.

Sky News – This apps makes the most of the iPad, with lots of rich content and a live news stream facility.

Skype  – This is the same app as the iPhone, it does not look great on the iPad as it is magnified but works well on the iPad 2 making using of the front and back cameras.

Twitter – Have tried the various Twitter apps, I prefer Twitter’s own app on the iPad, it has a nice feature where if you pinch the tweet it will expand to show the full profile of the tweeter.

BTFon – If you have BT Broadband or Openzone this app saves time by avoiding the need to enter your login details each time your in a BT Fon or Openzone hotspot by logging you in automatically.

Vevo HD – If you like watching music video’s this is the app for you, I was surprised with range of content Vevo has and good quality, it also has a social element to see who is watching music videos around you.

RightMove – The app using the GPS to find flats and houses on rent and sale around you, has a neat user interface.

Team Viewer – This app is ideal for the iPad, it allows you to remote desktop to any machine then take full control and manage whilst on the move.  It is all for free!

Apple Remote – The Apple remote is must have if you have a lot of music on your iTunes at home and like to search and play from anywhere in the house.

DropBox – The iPad does not have a file system to let you store documents, this app gives you access to all your files on your DropBox account which is stored in the cloud and can be access from your PC to transfer files.

Metro – This app lets your browse the news and also lets you download the paper and flick over each page.

So these are just a few of the apps for the iPad I like, what are your favourites?

Tablets – iPad, Galaxy Tab, Playbook or eTouch?

Since Apple’s launch of its iPad in April, more and more tablets have been announced and some have recently hit the market.  The Samsung Galaxy Tab went on sale on  Nov 1^st and could be the first serious competitor to the iPad.   The Blackberry Playbook was also recently announced and is expected to be available in 2011.  We have also seen high street retailers enter the market with the cheaper tablets by Toy’s R Us and Next starting at just £90.

The question is do you really need a tablet?  What purpose does it fill if you have a high-end Smartphone and Laptop?   A recent study found that 25% of UK iPads never leave the home and so Samsung are positioning the Galaxy Tab as small enough to fit into your jacket pocket.

The prices of tablets are similar to a sim free high-end Smartphone’s and mid range laptops, so if you have both then you need to question what value it really adds. The capabilities of tablets vary with range of screen sizes, storage, connectivity, cameras and operating systems.  Here is my comparison of some of the tablets

With a wide range of prices, features and sizes different tablets will appeal to different customers. The operating system and its associated app stores is a key attraction with Apple and Android having a wide range of free and paid for applications compared to Blackberry App World.

My recommendation would be the Galaxy Tab with front facing camera its useful for video calls, small enough to keep with you and the growing Android App Store should offer you the applications you need. 

If your on a budget its worth considering the eTouch or Next Tablet at a lower price you can still surf the web and run some apps.   If you don’t feel the need for a tablet at the moment then sit back  and see what Apple launch as the second generation iPad.

BlackBerry Messenger, it is keeping RIM in the consumer game?

Research in Motion (RIM) the developer of the BlackBerry Smartphone has been producing mobile wireless devices for more then ten years and has shipped over 50 million devices.

The focus for RIM in the early years has been on the enterprise and since 2006 more and more devices have been launched targeting the consumer with the Perl, Storm and recent lower end Curve devices.

BlackBerry is appealing to the consumer with over 60% of subscribers in 2009 coming from the non-enterprise. The question is what is keeping RIM in the consumer game? Is it the new range of devices, updated operating system, App Store or is it BlackBerry Messenger (BBM).

BBM is a propriety instant messenger application, which comes with every device shipped today. It enables real time communication between BlackBerry users and initially started with just a simple text based messaging service providing a free alternative to SMS. The later versions of BBM and most recent BBM 5.0 are more feature rich with profile pictures, status updates, pictures and videos.

You can add friends from anywhere in the world by scanning your QR Code (two dimensional barcode) or by sharing your unique BlackBerry PIN.

The new BBM 5.0 release allows you to create groups for friends, family or colleagues with a shared interest. You can then have text conversations between the groups, share pictures, manage lists and the group calendar.

Could BBM be keeping RIM in the consumer game providing a sticky and exclusive service only available to those with a BlackBerry Smartphone and generating viral marketing, which is helping RIM’s grow its consumer subscriber base year on year.

If you look back over the years Instant Messaging has been around in some form or another actively used by most young consumers with applications like MSN and Yahoo Messenger. BBM now fills this space nicely as Smartphone’s become the must have devices and SMS still a popular medium for quick communication.

The must have iPhone applications..

So it has been a few months since I got the iPhone 3GS and my collection of application is still growing.   With tens of thousand of applications available through the Apple App Store I would like to share with you my recommendations.

1)    iPhone TVCatchUp – This is my favorite application on the iPhone and this completely revolutionises the device.  The web application is very simple and lets you stream live TV to your iPhone in great quality over 3G or WiFi.

2)    Facebook – The new 3.02 has some great features and an improved UI so you can almost do everything you from your iPhone

3)    EchoFon (Formally TwitterFon) – I think this is the best free Twitter application around, great for direct messages, trends and tweets by location.

4)     Yelp – This application has an Augmented Reality feature called the Monocle which uses the GPS and Compass to identify your location uses your camera it overlay business around you (Very Cool).

5)     London JamCams – This is a useful application if you spend a lot of time driving around London and get stuck in traffic jams.  The application uses a real-time feed from TFL and displays traffic images of major roads around London.

6)    WhatsApp – This app is like Blackberry Messenger for iPhone. The integration with the iPhone is great and with Push Notifications you get instant messages without keeping the application running.  With more and more iPhone’s using this, it could become a must have application

7)    BBC IPlayer for iPhone – This is a great web application, which allows you to catchup on BBC TV whilst on the move.

8 )  Google Latitude – This is google’s attempt at a location-based services and starting to see some uptake, the downside of this service on the iPhone is web-based and needs to be running to keep your location up to date unlike the Blackberry or Windows Mobile Applications

9)    FeX for Facebook – This was one my first apps on the iPhone, which syncs your mobile contacts with Facebook and adds pictures and birthdays so when they call it pops up.

10) Salesforce.com Mobile – If you use Salesforce.com you will like this application, I have used this on Windows Mobile and Blackberry and can say the iPhone version is far better.  The application visual dashboards look great.

11) LinkedIN – This app is ok but it could do a lot more, worth a download anyway.

12) Skype – This only works on WiFi but great way to make free calls to other or SkypeChat.

These are a few of my favorite apps, will add another batch on soon.