Has The Mobile Industry Reached An Innovation Plateau?
Industry Leaders|March 2018

The annual Mobile World Congress called into Barcelona, Spain last week. It was a chance for everyone who’s anyone in the phone industry to meet, ink deals and announce exciting products.

Has The Mobile Industry Reached An Innovation Plateau?

More than 70,000 people attended the event which is even bigger than CES in terms of gadgets that fit your pocket. It also a conference featuring mobile phone manufacturers, mobile operators, technology providers and content owners. We saw the launch of new flagship phones from HTC, LG and Samsung, and a bigger-than-usual presence from Microsoft.

The Mobile World Congress is the time when the phones and wearables we will be buying and using over 2019 are put on display. It’s organized by the GSM Association, a body formed of some of the most influential mobile operators and manufacturers who joined hands in 1982 to promote the GSM standard. Today, the GSM standard is used by more than 90 percent of networks, across 210 countries.

The show first launched in 1987 as the GSM World Congress, and since then to 3GSM World Congress when the world switched to faster 3G networks. Realizing its going to need periodic name changes as new technology emerged, it adopted Mobile World Congress. Otherwise, we’d now be attending the 4GSM World Congress in Cannes, not in Fira de Barcelona. Up until 2006, the show took place in Cannes, near the beach.

Nokia, LG and Samsung are leading the event to reveal their smartphones and other products. South Korean electronics giant Samsung unveiled its latest flagship model in the smartphone segment – Galaxy S9 and S9+. Nokia launched its new flagship smartphone – Sirocco. It’s undoubtedly one of the highlights of this year’s event, and one of the best Android phones you’ll be able to buy in 2018. The phone has a 5.5-inch pOLED display with reduced bezel size and curved edges. The smartphone has a stainless steel frame sandwiched between two Gorilla Glass 5 glass panels.

The Finnish company launched the all-new 8110 4G, an updated version of Nokia’s classic 20-year-old phone. It has also unveiled Nokia 7 plus, new Nokia 6 and Nokia 1.

This story is from the March 2018 edition of Industry Leaders.

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This story is from the March 2018 edition of Industry Leaders.

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