Mobile World Congress 2010, Pictures: Phone Guide Germany

While movie fans have traveled to Berlin this week, the mobile industry met in Barcelona. At the Mobile World Congress 2010 show manufacturers, providers and network suppliers presented latest devices and upcoming trends. Some of it – like eye-controlled earphones by Japanese operator NTT Docomo – seems weird, other things like higher data transmission rates over 4G networks or efforts to introduce standards to the world of smartphone apps sound rather promising. And, of course, handset manufacturers showed lots of new devices with new features. Here is a short wrap up of the most interesting phones and platforms of the show.

New and Smaller Handsets

There weren’t as many new mobile phones at the show as in the years before, but the new handsets were nonetheless interesting. For example, the Samsung Wave S8500 sports a Super-AMOLED screen displaying high-fidelity colors which allows you to read or watch content on the phone even from sharp angles. The Samsung Wave also runs on the new Samsung operating system Bada.

HTC Desire

Other manufacturers such as Sony Ericsson and LG presented new “mini” phones. I don’t know whether there is actually a demand for smaller smartphones since a big-sized (touch-)screen is very important for a good internet experience on the mobile. However, according to Sony Ericsson it is especially women asking for smaller form factors. The touchscreen phone X10 Mini by Sony Ericsson is a smaller version of the X10, the X10 Mini Pro can be regarded as the X10 Mini with a physical QWERTY keyboard. I was surprised how fast typing on the small keyboard can be. Both Sony Ericsson phones feature a new user interface which integrates all messaging and social networking activities (Timescape) and offers additional information to singers or groups of a selected song in the music player (Mediascape). Both Sony Ericsson mini phones will be available in Germany this spring for prices between EUR 300.00 and 350.00 without contract.

My favorite phones at Mobile World Congress could be seen at the HTC booth, the company building the first Android smartphones including the Google phone Nexus One. The new HTC Desire is the Nexus One with some minor improvements such as more RAM, more homescreens and multi-touch support like on the Apple iPhone. Unlike the Nexus One, the HTC Desire will not just be available at the Google web store.

(Almost) Everybody Is Doing Their Own Thing

Sony Ericsson X10 Mini Pro

Even though there was no Apple booth at Mobile World Congress the iPhone was always present on everybody’s minds. For example, Samsung’s new Bada platform is nothing else than the attempt to do as Apple did and to set up an own eco-system of phone, operating system and application store. Microsofts new Windows Phone 7 picks up important concepts of other platforms such as Android or iPhone OS as well: The user gets direct access to messaging, multimedia, online and social networking services as well as gaming and integrates them into single views. But be patient: It will take another nine months until the first smartphones running Windows Phone 7 will be hitting the market. It will also be interesting to see what will come out of Nokia and Intel merging their Linux platforms for mobile (Maemo and Moblin) into the new operating system Meego which could be suited for bigger form factors such as MIDs or tablets. LG demonstrated multi-tasking abilities and application performance of Moblin on a device called “LG MID” which looked pretty much like the LG GW990 that has been announced earlier.

When it comes to platforms everybody is doing their own thing at the moment. However, there’s light at the end of the tunnel: Wireless operators such as T-Mobile and Vodafone as well as handset manufacturers such as Samsung, Sony Ericsson and LG have agreed to set up an open platform for distributing applications for users of all mobile operating systems. Some time this year, T-Mobile will also offers its customers in Germany to pay for applications downloaded from app stores such as Ovi by mobile phone bill instead of using the credit card.

Anything Goes!

Motorola Backflip

The Mobile World Congress always shows how we will be using our phone in two or three years. And there are some new and very interesting services out there. Free navigation services and HD video streaming are just two examples for this. This is why expanding mobile broadband networks with LTE or other 4G technologies is so important.

On the other hand, it seems as if buying a new smartphone will become more complicated with more handsets and more platforms entering the market. I would suggest another point of view: Buying a new smartphone will become easier because platforms resemble each other more and more. Which means: Anything goes! Another good thing about Mobile World Congress in Barcelona: It only lasts four days which gives me the opportunity to spend this weekend at home in Berline and to watch movies at the Berlinale.

Read more about Mobile World Congress 2010 at www.teltarif.de (in German).