{"id":2068,"date":"2008-04-05T17:04:05","date_gmt":"2008-04-05T17:04:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mobiadnews.com\/?page_id=2068"},"modified":"2014-03-11T23:27:08","modified_gmt":"2014-03-11T23:27:08","slug":"release-didmo-introduces-award-winning-mobile-game-advertising-service-to-us-and-european-markets","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/www.mobiadnews.com\/?page_id=2068","title":{"rendered":"Mobile World Congress – 2014 Wrapup"},"content":{"rendered":"

mwc2014-wrapup.pngAs always, the MobiAD team went to the Mobile World Congress show in Barcelona to see what are the key trends in the world of mobile. This year more than 85,000 attendees from over 200 countries attended, making it by far the largest MWC ever.<\/p>\n

Here is our take on four of the most interesting and significant trends that we spotted at the show, subjects that we believe could well be important for MobiAD subscribers to follow over the coming year.
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Altogether there were more than 1,800 companies showing their products and services at MWC, so trying to cover everything is not even an option. However, over the course of the show, there are always a few themes and trends that become evident.<\/p>\n

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IoT – The Internet of Things<\/h3>\n

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mwc-2014-iot.pngAlso called M2M<\/strong> or Connected Life<\/strong>, this is clearly an area that many operators are hoping will provide substantial future business as their other revenue sources erode. Unfortunately, just as it seems like no one has yet to be able to firmly settle on the right name for this market, it seems that the market itself is still some ways off in terms of becoming an actual consumer phenomenon. <\/p>\n

The business use of M2M has been around for quite a few years, and seems to be growing well. Fleet tracking, cargo tracking, utility meter reporting, etc are all well known applications. Given the growth of economical higher speed networks, we are also seeing some video based applications becoming mainstream (think security cameras or remote video advertising screens).<\/p>\n

mwc-2014-ericsson.pngEricsson<\/strong> showcased new infrastructure designed to help operators offer advanced M2M services. One development stressed was the increasing ability to enable communication with remote devices be two-way for control purposes rather than simply one-way for tracking purposes. <\/p>\n

For example, they cited a fruit shipping company that monitors the temperature of their fruit containers during shipment. They can also remotely adjust the temperature of the containers depending on the speed achieved by the ship so that the fruit ripens exactly when the ship arrives at the port.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, the Connected Street<\/strong> part of the MWC exhibit was definitely less than exciting. It was intended to showcase how connected devices can impact many facets of our lives from education to health to transportation. However, with very few exceptions, the applications shown seemed to be more ‘science fair’ type projects, not things you would actually see using today.<\/p>\n

mwc-2014-auto.pngAlso, car manufacturers were exhibiting at MWC once more this year, with promises of the Connected Car<\/strong>. However, from what we saw the real focus at the moment seems to be how best to integrate a smartphone into an automobile, rather than offering really compelling new services. <\/p>\n

mwc-2014-ford.pngFor example, the ability to use a voice recognition front end to control your iPhone apps while in the car (as shown by Ford<\/strong>) is an interesting idea, but somehow it seems to fall short of the full promise of Connected Car<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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