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Content portability, touch screens are buzz at Mobile World Congress

Mobile World Congress, the world's largest mobile event, has attracted close to 50,000 delegates, down 10 percent from last year. What were they discussing? The economy, mobile's upward trajectory, content portability, new touch screens and applications.

Here are first-hand accounts from four delegates and exhibitors at the GSMA-organized Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain.

Michael Neidhöfer is CEO of Netbiscuits
Yes, the economic slowdown has arrived at the Mobile World Congress, too.

Here and there, the GSMA has some booth space left and the halls seem to be a little less crowded than the year before. But talking to people tells you that the atmosphere isn't bad at all.

The business partners I met [Feb. 16] generally welcome the market adjustments that are just going on. These adjustments make sure that only the most efficient and cost-effective solutions for the mobilization of content and services will make it.

Additionally, in-sourcing seems to become an option for more and more players. Netbiscuits is looking forward to this becoming a trend in 2009.

The publishing industry is keen on mobile. Their losing ground in print continues and mobile is seen as a promising way to open up additional revenue streams.

One of the preferred ways to monetize seems to be the mix of mobile virtual network operator and mobile advertising strategies. Therefore, publishers are forming mobile advertising alliances in various markets.

Regarding devices, the iPhone 3G is still gadget No. 1. It keeps setting the standard which Nokia's N97 or the Android-enabled G1 are not able to reach.

But Android is generally seen much more positively today. After various handset manufacturers announced they will embrace Android, the content industry is looking forward to a larger set of devices that will enable a great mobile user experience.

Lars Aase is vice president of marketing at Momail, Stockholm, Sweden
Short from my first day here at chilly Barcelona, and I don't mean the financial situation, even though it "hurts" the parties here.

For example, there are still tickets for sale for the Mobile World Congress Awards [on Feb. 17]. I will not go, but that's because the category for us is no more.

Most people are quite positive and traffic there is OK with people visiting the stands. Fifty-three percent here say business in telecom will grow this year and 23 percent "only" expect a decline. Don't ask me where I got the figures, but I have seen them in print [on Feb. 15].

Yesterday was my first day looking at hardware that will increase the possibilities for greater user experience for mobile usage and, of course, mobile marketing, or mobile email, if you like.

It's about "TTT" -- touch, touch and touch! All major handset vendors launched touch devices.

So here are some highlights:

-- Sony Ericsson Idou, 12 (!) megapixel camera, new touch user interface, transparence and nice connections between phone/TV/stereo/PlayStation.
-- Samsung Beat DJ. They are crazy, focusing on everyone wanting to be a "mobile DJ."
-- Samsung Omnia HD, already upgraded with high resolution and new user interface
-- Nokia E75, the world's "best mobile mail machine ever built" (Research In Motion agree?)
-- LG Arena, new "S-class interface" (S stands for Symbian open foundation)
-- ZTE and Huawei. The Chinese are getting better and better, but still not on the innovative edge

And here are the lowlights â?¦

-- Motorola. I feel sorry for them, showing five years old "new" and few handsets, and no one with touch!
-- Android. Lot of hype before show, nothing at the show (OK, Huawei did launch an Android smartphone)
-- Apple and iPhone are not here. Sad they could have "taken"the show!
-- Windows Mobile. They are lagging behind. Proof? Vendors are doing a sell on top of the Windows mobile user interface, trying to catch-up with the other OS platforms
-- DoCoMo. Fifty phone models -- all in pink. Really, are they at the right show?
-- Palm Pre. Looks nice, but I was not allowed to visit their stand (invitees only!)

Jaime Lanchares is CEO of Unkasoft
One more year in the fantastic environment and warmth of Barcelona. We have the chance to gather with our partners, clients, operators and, of course, our competitors -- always a pleasure.

My first impression of the event is that the economic situation has affected the show and there are less visitors, but there is still a sense of quality surrounding the conference.

Being an emerging company involved in the mobile marketing industry, we were very pleased to see very knowledgeable visitors at our stand.

These attendees know exactly what we offer in the mobile marketing arena, asking for the latest in advergaming and advertising. More mobile marketing agencies came to our stand to see the latest trends.

After a quick walk-around, here are my observations.

Microsoft presented a new great colored QR codes, faster to read than the regular DataMatrix. Really liked them. Back to advertising -- brands enjoy more and improved mobile marketing tools.

Also Microsoft unveiled the new version of Windows Mobile 6.5, bringing enhancements like an application store -- more new features to strengthen Windows Mobile.

DoCoMo presented a new separable mobile phone. It was a prototype with display and keypad separate from each other for greater functionality.

More devices are improving user experience for games and applications. And Nokia presented the light and powerful N97, fiercely competing with HTC G1, the new generation in mobile technology with access to Android Market.

Mohan Sadashiva is senior vice president of marketing at FusionOne
While at Mobile World Congress there is buzz in the air -- it's called mobile content portability.

Led by Microsoft, Apple, Google and FusionOne, it is evident that the next wave of software development is creating content security in order to ensure consumers can transfer their content with ease from one mobile device to the other.

Most mobile content portability news came out weeks ago, but [yesterday] FusionOne and Verizon Wireless announced they had teamed up to provide Verizon customers with a multi-service sync technology.

From the show floor Microsoft announced several new products led by its Windows Mobile 6.5 platform.

To complement this news, it unveiled its My Phone service -- the beta was called Skybox -- which syncs information on your mobile phone to a storage space on a Web site hosted by Microsoft.

If your phone is lost or stolen, or if you upgrade to a new phone, you can easily restore the contacts, calendar appointments, photos and other information that you stored on My Phone to a compatible new or replacement phone.

Most phones that run the Windows Mobile 6 operating system are compatible with My Phone service.
Google's Sync for the iPhone, licensed by Microsoft, is also leading the charge in content portability by syncing up your Google contacts and calendar.

The service allows users to update phone contacts from a Gmail account and download Google calendar items back to your mobile device.

According to Google, Sync uses push technology to ensure your changes made are reflected on the device within minutes.

Apple's MobileMe has been out for awhile now, but news was announced that users can now make use of their MobileMe iDisk to share larger files simply and easily through the Web. They also have an iPhone or iPod touch component for syncing content as well, and all of this done -- automatically -- over the air.

Sharing content with security and ease is going to be a trend to keep our eyes on in the coming year. It is relevant for so many facets of the mobile ecosystem, especially for licensed applications.

This will be highly relevant for music, games and any other branded application you want to move from one device to another without losing what was purchased.

As the industry comes to the rescue, it is not about syncing your mobile ringtones and wallpaper, but it's about ensuring licensed content is secured as well.