Last week, imgZine attended the Mobile World Congress 2016 in Barcelona. Together with 100.000 other attendees from 204 different countries, imgZine enjoyed four inspiring days at world’s largest gathering for the mobile industry. In this post, we share the three most debated trends. Overall, the MWC became much more than just a congress about ‘mobile technology’.
1. It’s all about the Internet of Things
One of the overall theme’s which was clearly covered during the Mobile World Congress (MWC) was the Internet of Things (IoT). Since a few years, an increasing number of (physical) products are connected with the Internet in order to make our lives easier. Nowadays, we’re not only connected with the Internet via our laptop or mobile phones, but also through devices as watches, bracelets and glasses. With rapidly developing technologies that communicate with each other, the market is quickly evolving.
At the MWC there was a special exhibition area for the IoT theme. In this area many companies demonstrated their new ‘IoT devices’. However, it might be said that some companies went a bit too far with their ideas. This resulted in tools such as a watch to record your kids voice and movement in order to ‘keep the best memories’ for parents. An overview of the 9 strangest IoT ideas presented at the MWC can be found here.
2. The increasing use of Big Data
A relevant subject that supports (and often underlies) IoT is Big Data, which also covered a lot of attention at the MWC. Driven by the enormous growth in connected (IoT) devices, the total worldwide data will grow from 3.2 billion terabytes to over 40 billion by 2020. Most IoT devices work along with recording data. By analysing these often big amounts of data valuable information can be revealed very fast.
3. Security more and more becomes an issue
With the coming wave of data, the risk of cyber breaches is greater than ever. While popularity of IoT increases, our current breed of smart devices being not-so-mart with regard to security. This causes privacy concerns to move to the forefront. Maintaining privacy and security in this fast moving environment is challenging, whether you are a software/hardware developer, a mobile operator, provider of services, or an end customer. This resulted in lots of security solutions being presented at the MWC. Particularly a number of innovative Israeli companies did a great job in the security field.
More than just mobile
It can be stated that the MWC is no longer a congress that’s just about ‘mobile’. Due to the fast-developing (mobile) technology and the use of big data, the world we live in offers more and more opportunities in all kinds of industries. These opportunities have their own challenges, especially with regard to security. The Mobile World Congress 2016 was marked by these challenges and opportunities, leading to some high-end products and solutions. Overall, we enjoyed attending the MWC and will be present again next year!
