Exhibition of mobile technologies. Gadgets go beyond

Annual exhibition mobile technologies passed, leaving behind a noticeable aftertaste. Once again, the largest market players gathered under one roof to present their key products. Traditionally, a large number of new products were presented, but there were only a few worthwhile and truly interesting announcements. We will talk about just these in this final article.

The former Canadian smartphone manufacturer (now a security software developer) BlackBerry was one of the first to hold a presentation - it happened on February 25, even before the start of MWC 2017 (later they also took part there). TCL, the licensor of the BB brand, introduced a premium mid-class Android smartphone with a recognizable design and a physical keyboard - KEYone.

Despite the weak user interest in the old form factor, the BlackBerry KEYone impressed everyone. BlackBerry, as always, has outdone itself: the new product is confidently on the same level of uniqueness as the Priv slider. A metal body, protective glass with 2.5D coating, USB Type-C, a powerful camera from Google Pixel, as well as a proprietary physical QWERTY keyboard with a fingerprint scanner in the spacebar button and a touch layer are the main characteristic qualities of KEYone. Without a doubt, the new flagship stands out among everything that is currently on the market.

The technical characteristics of the BlackBerry KEYone are far from truly flagship - the Chinese have clearly saved money here. But this does not make the new blackberry keyboard worse.

The KEYone's screen diagonal and resolution are non-standard: 4.5 inches with a 3:2 format and Full HD resolution (1620x1080 pixels). The heart of the device is Qualcomm processor Snapdragon 625 with eight cores and 64-bit architecture. It is quite enough for all basic tasks, even for simple games without heavy graphics. After all, KEYone's main audience is wealthy businessmen who require confidentiality. The amount of RAM is sufficient for multitasking - 3 GB. There is also a good battery capacity for the form factor and hardware - 3,500 mAh. At the same time, Quick Charge 3.0 fast charging is supported.

The camera module in KEYone is also quite strong. There is a 12-megapixel Sony IMX378 sensor installed here, like the Google Pixel flagships. operating system smartphone - the latest Android version 7.1 Nougat without software interfaces, but with applications and an additional layer of security from BlackBerry.

The unveiled BlackBerry KEYone breaks the mold again. He is admired, but also feared. The main deterrent factor in in this case, of course, the price. It is at the level of $600 or approximately 35 thousand rubles. Moreover, it will be impossible to officially buy a BlackBerry KEYone in Russia, and not everyone will be able to order via the Internet or buy the gray model. However, none of this takes away from the fact that the KEYone is truly an amazing device.

The Mobile World Congress, which takes place annually in sunny Barcelona, ​​always surprises with interesting devices (smartphones, add-ons and even laptops), and also introduces the public in detail to trends that will actively develop in the coming years.

At the last exhibition, our attention was attracted not only by expensive flagships, but also by attractive budget phones. We decided to collect the most interesting new products that were shown at the exhibition in one material.

1. Best smartphone: Samsung Galaxy S9

Before the start of MWC 2018, we collected a huge number of rumors about new Samsung smartphones and almost all of them were eventually confirmed. Moreover, Samsung Galaxy The S9 hasn't even gone on sale yet and has already won an award for . And there is no reason to doubt it.

Samsung Galaxy S9 comes with an f/1.5 aperture, which allows the built-in lens to capture more light and work effectively in low-light conditions. Plus, the camera is capable of slow-motion shooting at an amazing frame rate of 960 fps. The manufacturer himself notes that the main camera module has become the most innovative in the Galaxy line.

2. Best retro phone: Nokia 8110

The company once again managed to attract attention and win the hearts of fans of retro phones. If last year the manufacturer revived the “unkillable” Nokia 3310, this time at the event they presented the classic folding phone Nokia 8110, which won the hearts of millions of users in the late nineties. Then everyone wanted the same phones as in the movie “The Matrix”.

3. Best iPhone clone: ​​ASUS Zenfone 5Z

Okay, the Chinese released a clone of the iPhone, but now it’s the same thing. Before this, the brand could boast of a fairly original smartphone design, but now it has changed its orientation a little. True, the engineers borrowed only the screen notch characteristic of the iPhone, retaining, for example, the 3.5 mm headphone jack. But the iPhone still seems to have more competitors.

ASUS has a top-end processor on board, and the retail price of the new product, according to preliminary data, will be about 36,000 rubles for the minimum version. Device with 8 GB random access memory and 256 GB of built-in will cost 4000 more. The aspect ratio of the display, as expected by insiders, is 18.5:9, and the resolution of the IPS screen is 2246x1080 pixels.

4. Best Rugged Phone: Cat S61

New rugged smartphone Cat S61 from famous manufacturer construction equipment is a real workhorse in the truest sense of the word. Like , the new product has a built-in thermal imager from FLIR with updated software.

The Cat S61 also received a laser rangefinder, which allows you to obtain information about the distance between objects within 10 meters. The gadget itself is made according to the military standard MIL-810G, which indicates its maximum protection against external influences.

5. Best AI Phone: LG V30S ThinQ

LG has best implemented artificial intelligence technologies in its smartphone. Firstly, the flagship LG V30S ThinQ smartphone works with Vision AI and Voice AI technologies, thanks to which the mobile device can automatically analyze the environment and select suitable shooting parameters, as well as support 32 voice commands to control the device.

https://youtu.be/aKp0Nw0zSgA

Secondly, with the QLens feature, the LG V30S ThinQ camera can use machine vision to recognize QR codes without requiring third-party software. After this, the smartphone can offer a list of online stores that sell the product whose code was scanned by the camera. In addition, the smartphone will be able to interact with other LG technology that follows the ThinQ concept.

6. Best Budget Smartphone: ZTE Blade V9

For all its strange experiments with technology, ZTE was able to introduce premium technologies into the budget segment. ZTE Blade V9 is equipped with a dual camera, an advanced low-light shooting mode, a screen with a trendy 18:9 aspect ratio, and a glass and metal body.

It's hard to say exactly how they plan to improve images taken in the evening, given the maximum aperture of f/1.8, but we'll try to figure this out during future tests. We also have to check the performance, which the manufacturer does not hesitate to call impressive. The exact price for the new product has not yet been announced, but company representatives say that it will not exceed the cost of 300 US dollars (about 17,000 rubles).

7. Best ghost smartphone: Huawei P20

This year, not all smartphones made it to MWC, but some still made their mark at the exhibition. In particular, the flagship, which will be shown at the official press event in France on March 27. As an advertising campaign, a truck was parked near the convention site with the announcement of an upcoming phone model.

Judging by preliminary data, the flagship solution from Huawei will receive a frameless display with a resolution of 1080x2244 pixels and an aspect ratio of 18.7:9, a triple camera module that will allow you to take pictures in a resolution of 40 megapixels, and will also use machine learning technologies.

8. Best Innovation: Vivo Apex

The premium Chinese brand Vivo has many interesting ideas, which, although they do not always find their implementation in smartphones, the company is not shy about showing them. We were impressed by the newest concept phone, which debuted at Mobile World Congress in a private conference room rather than at the company's booth surrounded by flashbulbs from photojournalists.

Vivo quietly demonstrated the advanced features of the Apex smartphone, which include a display that is completely free of screen frames and has a fingerprint layer (when you press anywhere on the screen, the phone is unlocked using your fingerprint), as well as a self-learning camera.

The smartphone's speakers are also built into the screen, which is a bit reminiscent sound system Sony TVs that can pass sound through the screen. These are wildly ambitious features that won't appear even in expensive flagship smartphones for a long time. And using the example of Vivo Apex, the manufacturer simply demonstrates what future generations of smartphones may look like.

PHOTO: Manufacturing companies; tianya1223/pixabay.com

Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2019 is held from February 25 to 28 in Barcelona, ​​Spain.

You can see the exhibited products and sections of the exhibition below, in the block “ Additional Information». Full list participants of Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2019 is posted on the official website of the exhibition and is constantly updated. You can also find exhibitors from the previous year there. The Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2019 business program is usually published closer to the start of the event.

Your personal calendar

Add Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2019 to your calendar so you don't miss out on an important event. Create your own schedule of events.

Planning a solo trip to Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2019?

We recommend booking.com during the exhibition period. How to get to the exhibition center Fira de Barcelona Gran Via can be found in the catalog of places or on the official website of the site. Also use maps Google Maps, which allows you to build routes using public transport.Don't forget to check the location and dates of the exhibition on the official website and in the exhibition complex calendar. The event can be postponed, cancelled, or combined with a project of a similar theme. Please note thatExpomap is not the event organizer and is not responsible for inaccuracies in the information provided.

Hello! My name is Katya Frank, I am a leading marketer at Mobile Dimension. In this article I will give a short analysis of the Mobile World Congress exhibition in Barcelona, ​​compare it a little with the same exhibition from GSMA in Shanghai, tell you who should participate in it, and how to organize everything so as not to screw it up. I’ll also tell you what could have been prepared better, what we missed, and what I recommend doing to everyone who goes there next year. The article will be useful to marketers and business developers of IT companies.

I will not show new products from Samsung and Nokia (but I will show a helicopter) and review the stands or give a tour; there is a lot of information about this part of the exhibition in the RuNet, so I would like to shed some light on the side that is not visible to the media. I’ll also tell you a little about how to take part in MWC and not go broke, but this is not advertising, but part of the life experience that we lived.

Background

Mobile Dimension is a mobile application developer working in foreign markets, and, in general, we found it logical for us to participate in MWC Shanghai last year, and in MWC Barcelona this year.

Last year we went to Shanghai as participants in the Russian pavilion organized by the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications of the Russian Federation. We went to Barcelona with the Russian Export Center and this time we had our own stand within the pavilion.

Next, I will tell you in more detail about preparations for the trip, about REC co-financing and what it is, how to go through the procedure and what you will get in the end

For those who are immediately interested in the exhibition, I recommend scrolling further, since there is about a page of organizational details ahead that will be useful only to marketers.

To begin with, I will say that, as many people know, participation in such major exhibitions as MWC, Computex Taipei and others, just from the street, in my humble opinion, costs like a Boeing wing. For many, these are unaffordable marketing budgets for a brand-building project. Such exhibitions cost from 7 thousand euros for Raw Space 6 meters without development (we add about the same amount for the simplest development) and up to plus infinity, depending on how little time is left before the event and what your appetites are. Building a city on the floor of a pavilion in the Gazprom style is priceless. You can spend three days at an exhibition once, have a blast and immediately close the company and go to the Cayman Islands to hide from the collectors who will come after you. The situation is a little better if you have already participated. You can claim that you are a second-year participant, demand a discount, try to negotiate. It’s a little easier to bargain in China, since all the materials for construction are produced there and everything is basically cheaper there.

I'll tell you how you can do this significantly cheaper.

The Russian Export Center is an organization that provides all possible support for Russian exports (including non-raw materials) abroad. The support program also includes co-financing (partial financing), i.e. indirect material support for SMEs. I translate into Russian - if you are a small and medium-sized business, you can receive co-financing for your participation in a major international event, both as part of the Russian delegation and separately. Indirect support means that no one pays you money directly, but takes on a fairly large percentage of your costs. The total amount is different each time depending on the specific event, but I can say from myself that this saves you a very significant marketing budget + gives you a lot of interesting opportunities, such as an extra badge or other benefits from being at the national stand.

For reference: At such large exhibitions as CES, CEBIT or MWC there are almost always national pavilions. Young companies united in a national pavilion present themselves there.

What is the advantage of participating in the national pavilion?

And it's very simple. If you are an abstract startup HighTech Mobile Innovation Inc, then the maximum you can count on at MWC is a stand of 6 square meters for a lot of money with a simple design. Moreover, what is most offensive is that such giants as Nokia, Samsung, ZTE, Huawei and others buy up space years before the exhibition and have priority over everyone else in choosing a profitable location. As a result, small stands are often shoved into the far corner so as not to spoil the plan and engineering of the development. This year, seats were even sold in the corridors between the pavilions. It's expensive and makes little sense. There is a huge amount of traffic in the corridors, and on the one hand this is good, but on the other hand, in order to take advantage of it, you need to make a huge amount of effort to attract their attention.

In general, as they say, it depends on the taste and color... But from simple logic, participation at the stand of the national delegation with an area of ​​100 square meters is more profitable than at a stand with an area of ​​6 square meters in the corridor. A large stand is more noticeable, higher, and attracts more attention.

A very sad stand of a very interesting startup in an escalator bay.

What else does participation at the national stand give?

Of course, you will be published in the pavilion catalogue, and will also be provided with all sorts of business programs and business events, meetings with business missions from other pavilions and other cultural events. Otherwise, the main point here is participation.

What is required and what awaits you?

First of all, mentally prepare for collecting, filling and sending large quantity documents, incl. in the originals. Anyone who has ever prepared a tender is familiar with this; the list of documents is approximately the same. You will definitely need an extract from the SME and from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities. If you have a special person on your team who can be entrusted with this, consider yourself lucky. And remember that even if no one warns you about this at first, in the end they will definitely ask you for the originals by mail, be prepared for this and store each piece of paper like the first spring flower. To begin with, you can submit an application for registration in the system (i.e., become an exporter) and, having passed this stage, assess whether you are ready to continue collecting paperwork. I will be ready to share links in the comments if anyone needs advice on the process. Be prepared for the entire procedure to take a lot of time. Submit documents in advance and monitor the publication of protocols on the website - whether you have been approved to participate in co-financing for the event or not. Feel free to call there to check the status.

Now a little more introductory information about the exhibition itself

When we arrived in Barcelona, ​​we were shocked by the level of organization. Badges were issued on all days in all airport terminals, you could get them in the city, at two, it seems, issuing points, as well as in the exhibition complex itself (the latter is highly not recommended by the organizers themselves - there are a lot of people). When you apply for a badge on the website, you can check the box indicating where exactly you want to receive your badge and on what date.

At the airport, an entire floor was dedicated to issuing badges, the navigation “For MWC participants - go there” is extremely clear, every 15 meters there is a volunteer in a uniform red vest who will show you the way and give you advice.

What caused us total delight was the metro ticket. All participants are given a metro pass along with their badge, which is valid for all four days of the exhibition throughout the city. Firstly, the metro in Barça is very expensive, and secondly, the Fira Barcelona exhibition complex is located on a separate commercial metro line, the fare for which must be paid separately from the main system, so I can very well imagine what kind of hellish crowd would stand at the payment terminals, if the organizers had not issued tickets in advance.

In the city itself it’s the same – banners are everywhere, navigation is everywhere, advertising is everywhere, WMC info-points are everywhere.

Remark. When planning your visit to MWC, take care of your accommodations well in advance. We bought everything in December, but even then the hotel cost about half a million rubles for four, so we rented an inexpensive apartment on Airbnb. But in this case, check whether the apartment has heating; it snowed in Barcelona during our trip.

About the exhibition

When we went to Shanghai last year, we realized how different the Asian world is from the European one, even at such global events. If at MWC in Shanghai almost all the manufacturers were Chinese, they sold and offered services and products for the domestic market and did not even try very hard to translate their materials, headlines and stands into English, but in Barcelona everything is exactly the opposite. In Fira Barcelona, ​​and these are 9 (nine!) huge halls + corridors and courtyards of a huge walking carnival, focused on Europe here and now.

In this regard, what you definitely need to do for MWC in Barcelona- is to prepare good, attractive and understandable materials for English language, or better yet, bother and translate them into Spanish. We translated only into English, but did not translate into Spanish and to some extent regretted it.

Pavilion 8.1 was entirely dedicated to mobile applications and development, promotion and mobile advertising. We ended up in hall 6, where there was no one else, but since it was the REC pavilion, we could not influence the choice of hall. The problem is that the exhibition does not officially divide the exhibitors into halls; the exhibition divides them only according to the engineering of the stands, laying them out on the plan like in Tetris. Therefore, if it is convenient for the exhibition to move you in order to squeeze in a stand the size of a football field, the exhibition will do it. The result is 9 halls of an endless flow of information that cannot be structured in any way. To get around all nine and not go crazy, you have to use the method of exiting the maze - always walk on the right side.

If you are a mobile developer and planning to participate next year– write to the organizers and ask where they plan to place the developer hall. Why was this important? Because many who come to MWC come immediately with specific tasks, to specific companies and with pre-arranged meetings and do not go around random halls to click their beaks. As a result, it turns out that if you are a developer, but you are not in the hall you need (in our case, not in 8.1), your audience may simply not know about your stand. Our stand was located in pavilion 6 and it turned out that this was not entirely successful. There was no such problem in Shanghai, since there were almost no mobile developers there, and the exhibition itself was smaller.

Who knows, maybe the organizers will start dividing the halls into Apps, Health & Wearable, IoT and other categories to make it easier for visitors to navigate. But so far such a clear boundary was only in hall 8.1. - mobile applications.

Nokia stand at MWC18

First of all, when planning your stand, think about the feature. There are so many stands and such sizes that it is really very difficult to outdo your neighbor. Nokia this year, without undue modesty, simply built a city for half the pavilion. Think about the details, ask the developer what the height of the walls at the stand adjacent to you is, try not to be lower. Forget about hot air balloons - they're a thing of the past. The buzz of the season is rotating structures suspended on rails from the ceiling, moving elements with lighting, everything as high as possible, as bright as possible, as loud as possible.

Think over a system of competitions at the stand, don’t burden anyone with a business program, hire promotional girls, place a mustang at the stand and pour beer, give a smart watch and invest in the promotion of your stand. AppsFlyer poured whiskey at a stand decorated like a wild west saloon and played music, something that will be remembered for a very long time. Create hype and intrigue around your stand, stir up interest, promise everyone a surprise and a private party. We didn’t have such a feature, since we were extremely limited by the concept of the national pavilion. We are very sorry, next year we will come up with something to surprise you with.

In general, networking is a huge part of the point of being there. Make appointments through the exhibition portal and through the mobile application, do not ignore this opportunity, it is really very convenient. We were constantly meeting people, going to 4YFN events and having a ton of meetings at the booth. Now we understand that we could do even more.

Organize business meetings with target customers. At MWC there are people who privately organize (for money, of course) visits to your stand of various companies that interest you; you can and should negotiate with such people, these are targeted contacts. Most likely, they will write to you themselves as soon as your company is published on the MWC website. Unfortunately, we did not take advantage of this opportunity; we thought that there was already enough networking and would limit ourselves to business meetings organized by the stand. We regret it a little.

Negotiate with the giants six months in advance. Many large companies generally have stands at MWC that are completely closed from the public passing by, with only meeting rooms. It is impossible to get to such stands without prior registration; registration is completely closed sometimes as much as two months in advance. Among such companies were Ernst&Young, Google (Android), Boston consulting, Nokia. We didn’t know about this and couldn’t get to the Android stand.

Meet the crowd of competitors and startups. MWC constantly organizes self-organized evening events and parties, and this is a great chance to meet people and exchange experiences. We went to such events every evening and learned a lot of new and useful contacts, literally, from dating in line at a bar!

Try co-branding! Negotiate with partner companies, with large corporations with friendly marketing, split the cost of your stand in half and receive benefits from the advantageous neighborhood. In the same way, you can simply use the proximity to a conditional Google stand, but without prior agreements this will be technically difficult to do.

What else was interesting at the exhibition?

Helicopter from Huawei.

Global Mobile Awards
If you're attending MWC, you can submit your solution to the Global Mobile Awards. Be careful, applications close at the beginning of January, you need to fill out a rather impressive form, then the jury selection begins. There are many categories, it’s quite easy to choose for yourself. At first glance, it seems that it is impossible to compete with giants like Huawei and Zte, but we managed to enter the top five nominees in our category with mobile application“Pregnancy Calendar”, and this is an Oscar nomination for the mobile world! The awards ceremony looks very cool and is really very similar to the Oscars - red carpets and brilliant TV presenters. And, of course, when your logo is shown from the GLOMO stage, it’s a very exciting moment.

There were really a lot of stands. It is pointless to list them all, and this is not a review of the exhibition, but a practical guide to participation.

So, we get to the conclusions.

It makes sense to participate if you:

• Mobile developer or selling a service for developers
• Produce anything wearable - gadgets, medical devices, fitness trackers, headphones
• Produce software with versions for mobile devices
• You have introduced mobile technology in your company and want to tell the whole world about it - the Mercedes Benz stand presented the Smart concept car and the new A-classe, stuffed with electronics and mobility
• In general, anything related to mobility, even if you produce batteries

It definitely does NOT make sense to participate in only one case: if you produce something that is not translated (localized) in at least English. It is advisable to go to the exhibition only with a fully translated and finished product.

Is it worth participating without a stand, walking around and handing out leaflets, making acquaintances?
Yes, but that's not certain. The entry ticket for the simplest level costs one thousand euros + travel expenses. He only gives passes to the exhibition. To get to additional lectures, you need to get a silver pass, which is immediately much more expensive. If there is no way to set up a stand, then it is certainly better to go just as a visitor than not at all. But at the same time, you need to understand that there will be a million people like you, mixed with a million promotional personnel with leaflets.

It will be difficult, but fun.