The MWC show fills the Barcelona Fira and attracts about 50,000 attendees. While that's technically only about one-third of the size of the Consumer Electronics Show, the show actually felt more crowded, and I just couldn't see half of what I would have liked to.
Of course, there are lots of different devices, and lots of different device manufactures. There are dozens of makers of mobile phone and tablet makers -- maybe hundreds if you count the small Asian businesses -- and the show was filled with new devices from HTC, LG Electronics, Samsung, and Sony Ericsson - not even counting the ones from HP, Motorola, and Research in Motion before it began.
Walking the show floor, it was easy to get the feeling that Android has won the operating system wars, with most device makers and most chip makers pushing the platform. In part, though, that's because Apple isn't at the show, and doesn't let its competent vendors talk about it.
When I walked into the AppPlanet building, which hosted hundreds of software vendors, I did see a whole lot of applications designed for the iPhone and iPad, as well as many aimed at Android. I wish I had more time there. A number of companies were taking about Windows Mobile, but even the ones who have phones -- such as LG and Samsung -- were promoting Android more. Windows Mobile seems to be competing with Research in Motion's BlackBerry and Playbook; and HP's webOS is competing for third place, at least in the minds of most attendees. Nokia has now orphaned Symbian, and while Intel put on a brave face with MeeGo, and it may have a future in embedded devices, it doesn't look like it's a real player in phones and tablets.
There's huge competition among the chip vendors to make both the application processors and the radios that get into the phones and tablets. Broadcom, Freescale, Intel, Marvell, Nvidia, Qualcomm, Samsung, ST- Ericsson, and TI all showed new or upcoming application processors at the show. Even the basic architecture faces some competition, with the ARM architecture the entrenched player (used in the fast majority of phone and tablet chips today) facing off against Intel coming in from the PC market and MIPS coming in from the network processor market. I'll be posting a lot more about these chips in a bit.
As far as network standards go, most of the market was dominated by the various flavors of 3G, with LTE coming on strong. But there were also a few folks pushing WiMax chips, although since the show is put on by the GSMA (which backs the various GSM standards, including LTE), there wasn't much of that. And, of course, almost every market has multiple carriers, all with various strengths and weaknesses. Syniverse, known for providing roaming and SMS services to carriers, says it works with about 800 mobile operators worldwide and about 100 in North America. Obviously, most of those are relatively small.
On top of all of this, you have the competition for applications with hundreds of thousands now on the market; and for services on top of it, including cloud-based methods of accessing information.
One big question over the next couple of years is where you draw the lines between phones and tablets and PCs, as these mobile devices get even more features. If you count the iPad as a mobile PC, then Apple is suddenly the #1 maker of mobile PCs, according to DisplaySearch. Smartphones now outsell PCs, so if you count those as well, the share of Microsoft Windows and Intel processors ("Wintel") in smart devices has declined significantly just in the past few years.
But more importantly, what we're doing with these devices has changed. We're now connected wherever we go, and are sharing our information with our family, friends, and colleagues while on the move.
It's all pretty amazing, and the most exciting change in technology in a long time.
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