5 things we learnt from Mobile World Congress 2017

Firstly what is the Mobile World Congress? Mobile World Congress or MWC for short is the world’s largest gathering for the mobile industry where traditionally the big brands in the business, as well as some of the challenger brands come together to showcase their latest products, services and innovations, held in the Mobile World Capital Barcelona.

1. Nostalgia Ruled

Mobile World Congress is the place where the big phone manufacturers show off their latest phones and innovations but this year it was an old classic that got all the attention! 17 years on and if you didn’t already know Nokia have re-launched the 3310 and frankly it stole the show! Let’s face it what’s their not to love? For just over £40 it comes with a tiny colour screen, basic camera and a 2G web browser. However what we love is Nokia have retained what made the original great! Its battery will last a month on standby and the phone comes equipped with a rebooted version of Snake! The only thing that we’re yet to find out is if it’s as indestructible as its older sibling!

2. Pokémon Go is not dead

Anyone who listened to the keynote from Niantic CEO John Hanke will know that Pokémon Go is very much alive and kicking.  Hanke announced that further to the Gen 2 update which came at the beginning of this year, there would be 3 major updates to follow, based on previous comments this is likely to be player vs player battling, a revamped gym system as well as trading. Whilst it seems like a lifetime ago when literally everyone was playing, the game remains right at the top of app download charts. Some of the stats quoted were frightening! Players have walked more than 8.7 billion kilometres and caught over 88 billion Pokémon characters. Safe to say the game isn’t going away anytime soon.

3. Mobile World Congress isn’t so much about mobiles anymore

There was a time when the Mobile World Congress was purely about the big boys (Samsung’s, Sony’s etc.) showcasing their latest innovations and flexing their muscles at each other from across the room but there was a definite shift this year towards connected living. 5G is coming and this year’s congress showed a greater focus on connecting all aspects of people’s lives together. The congress featured driverless cars, advancements on the connected home with all the companies vying to be at the centre.

4. Everything depends on 5G

The one overusing theme of the congress was that 5G is coming and a lot depends on it. Unlike the hype surrounding 3G and 4G, 5G is about so much more than phone browsing and download speeds. Things like driverless cars and will only work if they have a completely stable unfettered connection which is able to make decisions down to a millisecond which isn’t possible over 4G.

5. Cameras continue to get better and better

This one probably won’t come as any real shocks to many of you as phone cameras traditionally get better every year. This year, however, was slightly different. Instead of just seeing the usual progression of megapixels and higher resolutions, manufacturers this year showed off significantly better lens quality. Sony in particular really caught the eye and show pave the way for far superior images showing up on social feeds over the next few years.

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