The Mobile World Show (MWC), a flagship event in the telecommunications sector, begins on Monday in Barcelona amidst the euphoria surrounding artificial intelligence (AI), which aims to harness the “technology” to give new impetus to the mobile market.
According to the Global Association of Telecom Operators (GSMA), which has been organizing the event in the Catalan capital since 2006, 95,000 professionals will walk the aisles of this annual major exhibition of connected services over four days.
This number of visitors, slightly increased compared to the previous year (88,500 visitors), comes in a complicated context for Barcelona, which is in a state of emergency due to the historic drought that has struck Catalonia in northern Spain for three years.
This decision, announced at the beginning of February, means restrictions on water consumption for almost six million residents, especially farmers and industry. A delicate situation that the organizers are apparently aware of.
Some of the participants “may not realize that we are in the middle of a drought here”, but “we will make sure that people drink less and save as much water as possible,” assured GSMA Director General Mats Granryd, during a press conference.
“Restart innovation”
According to this organization, which brings together almost 750 operators and manufacturers in the telecommunications sector, there will be 2,400 exhibitors as well as 1,100 speakers, including the President of Microsoft, Brad Smith, and the CEO and founder of Dell, Michael Dell.
Expected companies include most telecommunications giants (Samsung, Xiaomi, Huawei, Orange, Vodafone, etc.), but also technology and industrial heavyweights such as Airbus, Google and Accenture, with MWC having been expanding its audience for several years.
This 18th edition comes at a time when the mobile market – which has been losing momentum for several years due to a lack of innovations that could draw attention to new smartphone models – is recovering in the coming months thanks to the contributions of artificial intelligence legs comes.
According to specialist firm IDC, 1.17 billion devices were sold worldwide last year, the lowest figure in 10 years. However, sales picked up again in the fourth quarter (+8.5%) and “the dynamics point to a quick recovery,” he emphasizes.
Artificial intelligence “is clearly in the process of democratization and is now embedded everywhere: in phones, in peripherals, in networks,” emphasizes Thomas Husson, an analyst at Forrester, who expects AI to “restart innovation.”
Gadgets galore
Several manufacturers have already announced that they will unveil advances during the trade fair, including the chip-specializing start-up DeepX, the Japanese manufacturer Fujitsu and the Chinese company Honor, which will present an AI-powered camera.
Artificial intelligence was already present at MWC in 2023, but now “we have a much better idea of how operators and the mobile industry can benefit from it” for “networks, services and devices,” says Peter Jarich, head of research at GSMA .
Beyond issues related to AI, this edition offers professionals the opportunity to discuss the reorganization of the European market with the merger between Orange and MasMovil announced in Spain and the financing of telecommunications networks in the face of the explosion in data traffic.
For years, operators have complained about having to invest heavily in infrastructure to enable video viewing on platforms such as Netflix, YouTube and TikTok. However, the latter firmly refuse to take part of these investments into their own hands.
The slowdown in the Chinese economy and its consequences for the sector are also being closely monitored. According to the GSMA, however, it will have no direct impact on the trade fair: Chinese companies and Huawei in particular are “still by far the largest exhibitors,” emphasizes Mats Granryd.
Beyond these debates, as every year, the public's attention should be drawn to the gadgets presented between humanoid robots, virtual reality and applications of all kinds. This time with a car that can drive both on land and in the air.