Key trends at the Mobile World Congress

Unlike the Consumer Electronics Show, the MWC hasn’t yet caught the attention of the advertising and marketing industry. “I have no idea why it’s not on everyone’s agenda. I was quite surprised,” said Armshaw, who noted the keener interest marketers showed in CES. “I guarantee though that in years to come, it will change.”

Brands and clients were keen to attend however. McCann Worldgroup and MWC organizer GSMA organized the mPowered Brands Amabssador programme to give marketers and brand leaders a tour of the event designed to help them gain insight.

Armshaw, who was part of the team giving these tours, spotted the following trends:

Mobile payments are big big big

Nokia Siemens Network was showcasing a Facebook app, share@once, that connects to telco backend billing. “It lets pre-paid customers go in and track their use in real time via this Facebook app. It even allows micro-payment transfers between accounts,” Armshaw said, adding that several telcos are already on board, but NSN is not yet free to disclose who they are.

Mobile 3G payment technology can even be used in vending machies. Armshaw noticed NSN’s work with UK telco Orange on 3G-connected vending machines that allow vendors to check stock and potentially allow the use of payment systems like Mastercard Paypass.

Facebook too was present at MWC, discussing its work with a group of telcos to improve mobile payments. “Half of their 845 million users are accessing the social network via mobile, and the lack of a mobile web payment system is impeding its business ecosystem,” Armshaw said.

Android domination

Google, which didn’t have a booth at CES, splashed its cute green monsters all over the MWC, and Eric Schmidt held his regular keynote address. After last year’s success, Google produced a newer, bigger Android robot pin collection (84 designs) that became hot property at the event. “It went viral," Armshaw laughed. "Everyone was collecting them and trading them.”

Google’s presence indicated its investment in the Android platform, which has long overtaken iOS as the most used smartphone operating system.

NFC

With NFC (near-field communication) embedded in Android’s Ice Cream Sandwich operating system, its multiple uses were a dominant theme throughout the conference, Armshaw said. “There were many more examples of different applications for NFC in mobile phones. Such as Android Beam, which allows you to share personal credentials between two Android phones.”

“SK Telekom from South Korea had a wonderful booth," he continued. "A coffee store that featured the full NFC process. Go in, tap your phone, pick up a voucher. Tap a menu and you order a beverage, pay for it with NFC. And they actually give you coffee!”

Beyond mobile payments, NFC would also be great for loyalty programmes, he added.

Cheaper smartphones

At CES, the cheapest touchscreen smartphone retailed for about US$100, observed Armshaw. At MWC, ZTE debuted its US$80 touchscreen smartphone. “In his keynote, Eric Schmidt said that he expected Android smartphones to be the same price as feature phones in the near future.”