Mobile World Congress, or MWC, is the largest mobile trade show of the year, stretching over three days and attracting almost 100,000 mobile traders and enthusiasts.
On February 22nd, there were announcements from some of the biggest tech companies in the world: everything from new phone models to ground-breaking innovation in gaming. Mobiles are a multi-billion dollar industry and 2016 was testament to how fast the industry is moving.
How phones have developed over the last decade
Looking back to 10 years ago, mobile phones were being made smaller and smaller, with cameras that were pushing into 3 megapixel territory. 3G was only just being introduced and teenagers were arguing about whether they had enough time on their 10-minute bus journey to send a song via bluetooth.
Leaders in the market included classics such as:
- Motorola V3 Razor, the most sought after phone on any playground in the UK
- Sony Ericsson Walkman w810, dubbed ‘the iPod killer’
- Blackberry 7100, which began Blackberry’s success within the business community
Nowadays, phones have gone from simple means of communication to complete entertainment hubs and can even be used to run entire businesses.
At this year’s mobile world conference, companies were competing to release what they believe to be the next big thing.
Samsung announced something that has got the tech world talking – the further development of Virtual Reality, this time with their latest model, the S7. Although it has been getting more and more popular over the last few years, virtual reality has mainly been based on consoles and computers. This finally gives Virtual Reality a real chance to shine on an everyday consumer level. 2015 saw a huge boom in the production of 360 degree videos, and Samsung has jumped on this bandwagon and announced the ‘Gear 360’ camera.
Chinese phone company Xiaomi announced its latest model, the ‘Mi5’, will boast a heap of new features. As well as having a ceramic plated body, it will also have the new video calling app ‘mi’ with a ‘beautify’ feature. This will automatically super impose the image of the person on screen.
Korean tech company LG announced its new home security system ‘Rolling Bot’. Controlled by your phone, from anywhere in the world, it can be used to monitor your home or keep an eye on your pets, no matter where you are.
Although some of the new tech announced so far in 2016 isn’t what a lot of people expected, it’s clear that the mobile market is a fast moving one, and in 2016 it is moving far beyond just phones.