With smartphones revolutionising the way we now live and work, you may be wondering what is next and how it would further enhance our lives.
I attended the GSMA Mobile World Congress held in Barcelona, Spain from February 24 to 27, 2014.
It was the world’s largest telecommunications event attended by more than 70,000 Telco professionals from around the globe.
Over the past 19 years, it is an event that I have come to consider a ‘must attend’. It really informs my thinking on technologies or trends you can see becoming ubiquitous in the next five, 10, 20 years or beyond.
These are pretty much always the ideas/products that make our lives easier or better in some way.
Five G advent
This year we are starting to hear people talk about 5G. We have also seen interesting new products such as the connected cars, wearables like the Samsung Galaxy Gear Fit, and of course the Samsung Galaxy S5, which we will be launching in 2degrees stores in autumn.
The big take away was IOT or ‘Internet of Things’. Aptly named, this refers to adding connectivity and intelligence to just about every device in order to give it special functions.
The big challenge
It is predicted to become a multi-billion dollar industry.
It is believed that by 2020, all of us would have five to ten connected devices – from glasses and watches to shoes and cars, with some speculating as many as 100 billion devices worldwide.
The big challenge here is how do all these devices talk to each other and where does 2degrees fit in to make sense of it for customers?
2020 may sound a way off but ‘wearable technology’ is not, with 64 million smartwatches expected to be sold globally by 2016. What is more, we are already ranging smartwatches in our 2degrees stores.
Therefore, I have been giving our Samsung Galaxy Gear a go.
With new models announced at GSMA, it is a really exciting time – keep an eye on this space over the coming months.
Samsung Galaxy
For the uninitiated, the Samsung Galaxy Gear pairs to your Samsung phone, giving you phone functionality on your wrist (as long as your mobile is nearby). Now, I can hear you wonder why you would need that but here’s why.
Firstly, you don’t need to check your phone to see who is calling– it’s a lot easier to glance at your watch while in a meeting.
Secondly, your watch can be used to take/make calls, so that you can go hands free in your car but talk normally. It looks pretty good (see picture). And lastly it tracks my physical activity and probably soon it will include GPS, something the fit folk will like.
The manufacturers that will be most successful, will in my opinion, offer customers an alternative connected product that people are happy to replace their current equivalent with, be it watches, glasses, shoes etc – but only because it adds greater value to their daily lives.
In the case of the Galaxy Gear, it is a big step in the right direction and would become more interesting as Apple, Pebble and the like move in to this area. There are many interesting things on the way.
Global event
The GSMA Mobile World Congress is a combination of the world’s largest exhibition for the mobile industry and a conference featuring prominent executives representing mobile operators, device manufacturers, technology providers, vendors and content owners from across the world.
The event, initially named ‘GSM World Congress’ and later renamed as the ‘3GSM World Congress,’ is still often referred to as ‘3GSM’ or ‘3GSM World.’
Stewart Sherriff is the Chief Executive of 2degrees Mobile Limited, Sponsor of the ‘Best Small Business’ category of the Indian Newslink Indian Business Awards 2014.
