Mobile World Congress: Beyond The Product Reveals

Mobile World Congress turns mobility on its head

Mobile is, unsurprisingly, everything. And everywhere.

Phones are not the face of mobile anymore.

This year, Barcelona hosts Mobile World Congress 2016 this year and after two days in, there’s plenty of takeaways to discuss. And it’s not just the fact that Barcelona’s metro workers are striking and subways are running at half capacity.

For the 11^th year running, Groupe Special Mobile Association’s event reimagines the definition of a connected world of devices, which is rapidly expanding to automotive, home, and wearables.

“For the first time since Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone nearly a decade ago, smartphone sales growth has dipped beneath double digits, slowing to just 9.5 percent, according to [International Data Corporation],” WIRED explains.

“It’s expected to drop even more, according to Gartner’s predictions. Even mighty Apple faces new pressure amid projections iPhone sales could be flat or even drop for the first time.”

Themes already dominating this year’s dialogue concern hot new devices, the transformation of how smart watches connect with our homes, the integration of wearables throughout business processes and the “connected worker,” implementation of the Internet of Things (IoT), the evolution of OTT—over-the-top—content, concern privacy and security, 5G development, the uptick in mobile data use, virtual reality, semiconductors… have we missed anything?

For more in-depth coverage, we gathered the top tweets from Mobile World Congress below:

The Future of 4G Network Coverage

Almost two-thirds of the world’s population will be covered by 4G networks by 2020 #MWC16 pic.twitter.com/xva63vcm47

— GSMA Intelligence (@GSMAi) February 24, 2016

*Cringe*

Can you guess how much your #smartphone‘d have cost in 1990? #MWC16 #IoT pic.twitter.com/xUCDQqmmgO

— ARM Mobile (@ARMMobile) February 24, 2016

The True Leader

Phones don’t rule Mobile World Congress. The Internet does. https://t.co/oJYRvCorCs

— WIRED (@WIRED) February 23, 2016

Smartphones in the Developing World

The developing world is driving smartphone adoption #MWC16 pic.twitter.com/4UMrVxOdDW

— GSMA Intelligence (@GSMAi) February 24, 2016

Formula 1 Cutting Edge Data and Connectivity x Cars of the Future

The future of auto is already here. #WhyWait #MWC16 pic.twitter.com/nWJPlmXrN3

— Qualcomm (@Qualcomm) February 23, 2016

Qualcomm’s VR “Invisible Museum”

Get a virtual view into the #IoT with our Invisible Museum—now on display at #MWC16. https://t.co/JOOKkOQGsghttps://t.co/VWkH5eDIeQ

— Qualcomm (@Qualcomm) February 24, 2016

Daily Mobile Access

More than 3bn people are accessing the internet via mobile – and 1m new customers connect every day #MWC16 pic.twitter.com/RrJFfQw8nT

— GSMA Intelligence (@GSMAi) February 24, 2016

Meet Li-Fi

#Li-fi ‘100 times faster than wi-fi’ shown at Mobile World Congress #MWC16https://t.co/Vh3BdqrCh8 pic.twitter.com/VAKTj74C4u

— ABC News (@abcnews) February 23, 2016

Samsung’s New VR

Samsung unveiled a 360-degree camera at the Mobile World Congress https://t.co/udI2obPCyo pic.twitter.com/VrGfgdbSEM

— Newsweek (@Newsweek) February 23, 2016

Day Two at MWC

Our highlights from day two of Mobile World Congress: https://t.co/mIhSsDuepr #HKMWC pic.twitter.com/ybx9QaGvp9

— H+K Strategies (@HKStrategies) February 24, 2016

And just for fun, check out GoPro’s Sweet Moves at the iconic Sagrada Familia

The Sagrada Familia = ultimate Barca backdrop. Watch #GoPro skate #Periscope w Aurélien Giraud 2/22 7am PST #GoLive pic.twitter.com/9HYQLIpHbk

— GoPro (@GoPro) February 22, 2016