The Mobile World Show (MWC), a flagship event in the telecoms sector, begins Monday in Barcelona against a backdrop of euphoria around artificial intelligence (AI), which the “tech” hopes to take advantage of to give new impetus to the mobile market.
For four days, 95,000 professionals will walk the aisles of this annual high mass of connected services, according to the Global Association of Telecom Operators (GSMA), which has organized the event since 2006 in the Catalan capital.
This attendance, up slightly compared to last year (88,500 visitors), comes in a complicated context for Barcelona, placed in a state of emergency due to the historic drought which has affected Catalonia, in the north, for three years. -eastern Spain.
This decision, announced at the beginning of February, is synonymous with restrictions on water consumption for nearly six million inhabitants, in particular for farmers and industry. A delicate situation of which the organizers claim to be aware.
Some of the participants “may not realize that we are here in the middle of a drought”, but “we are going to make sure that people drink less and save water as much as possible”, assured the director General of GSMA, Mats Granryd, during a press conference.
“Relaunch innovation”
According to this organization, which brings together nearly 750 operators and manufacturers in the telecoms sector, 2,400 exhibitors will be present, alongside 1,100 speakers, including the president of Microsoft, Brad Smith, as well as the CEO and founder of Dell , Michael Dell.
Among the expected companies are most of the telecommunications giants (Samsung, Xiaomi, Huawei, Orange, Vodafone, etc.) but also heavyweights in technology and industry, such as Airbus, Google and Accenture, the MWC having broadened its audience for several years.
This 18e edition comes as the mobile market – which has been losing momentum for several years, in the absence of innovations likely to attract attention to new models of smart phones – hopes to bounce back in the coming months thanks to the contributions of the ‘artificial intelligence.
According to the specialist firm IDC, 1.17 billion devices were sold worldwide last year, the lowest level in 10 years. However, sales restarted in the fourth quarter (+8.5%) and “the dynamic suggests a rapid recovery”, he underlines.
Artificial intelligence “is clearly in the process of being democratized and is now embedded everywhere: in phones, in peripherals, in networks,” underlines Thomas Husson, analyst at Forrester, who expects AI to come “ relaunch innovation”.
Gadgets galore
Several manufacturers have already announced that they will unveil advances during the show, like the start-up specializing in chips DeepX, the Japanese manufacturer Fujitsu or the Chinese Honor, which will unveil a camera doped with AI.
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”, judges Peter Jarich, Head of Research at GSMA.
Beyond questions linked to AI, this edition will be an opportunity for professionals to discuss the reorganization of the European market, with the merger announced in Spain between Orange and MasMovil, and the financing of telecoms networks facing the explosion of data traffic.
For years, operators have complained about having to invest heavily in infrastructure to allow the viewing of videos on platforms like Netflix, YouTube and TikTok. But the latter are firmly opposed to taking charge of part of these investments.
The slowdown in the Chinese economy and its consequences on the sector will also be closely monitored. According to the GSMA, however, it will not directly affect the show: Chinese companies, and in particular Huawei, “are still by far the biggest exhibitors”, insists Mats Granryd.
Beyond these debates, the public’s attention should be attracted, as every year, by the gadgets presented, between humanoid robots, virtual reality and applications of all kinds. Featuring, this time, a car capable of traveling on land as well as in the air.