Another February has come to an end and with it another Mobile World Congress has gone by. That small window at the end of winter when the tech world escapes to the sun, only to spend the days trudging around Fira Gran Via nosing at the latest and greatest in all things mobile. Vitamin D be damned.
A crack team of Roosters were aboard their flight this year, joining the meat market to check out some tantalising tech and take a few of our press pals out for dinner with our newest client, Master Lock. As always, we loved every minute of it.
Starting with the important things, itās time to talk lamb. On the recommendation of Mr James Day, Tuesday evening we ventured up into the hills of Barcelona to Asador De Aranda for some traditional slow cooked lamb fresh from the restaurantās famous clay oven. There are no words to describe how good this was. None. And donāt get us started on the black pudding. With guys from T3, Wareable, Macworld, PC Advisor and Mobile Choice all in tow to hear about the new Bluetooth Smart Padlock from Master Lock ā watch this space –Ā a good time was guaranteed.
At the show itself it was no surprise that the majority of contenders for handset of the year got their first outings. Samsungās S7 looks to have built on the success of arguably the best handset of 2015, bringing back some old tech and adding in some new. While LG did surprise with a discernibly luxurious looking āmodularā phone, not to mention a swanky new VR headset, 360Ā° camera and a rolling robot reminiscent of a certain BB-8 from the little known Star Wars franchise.
HTC decided not to announce a new M10 handset, to the dismay of many, but we did get a bit more info on the hotly anticipated HTC Vive Pre, including release dates and pricing. Spoiler alert: itās not cheap!
As has become traditional, we dropped in to see our buddies over at Franceās favourite challenger smartphone brand, Wiko. The innovatively designed phones are only matched by just how cool the brand itself is. When we finally convince them to move to the UK you can expect to hear us shouting their praises in traditional Rooster fashion – either that or we will just have to move out to Marseille and set up LRR France.
With the established brands starting to lose customers to upstarts across Europe it was really promising to see the affordable smartphone market well represented at the event, with some great brands showing their offerings. One company that really caught our eye were fellow Brits, STK. Showing a range of well crafted smartphones with decent specs, we were particularly enamoured with its Hero range.
And now for something completely different. One of our favourite spots from the show was a childrenās wearable from Omate Wherecom. The cunningly named K3 – no points for guessing what the K stands for ā is a tracker and fully integrated smart watch for pre-teens. Using GPS and geofencing technology the product allows you to afford a certain level of freedom to your kids without risking their safety, plus they can be kept entertained with a full array of games available from Google Play. This is a category that is destined to grow rapidly over the next few years and we think Omate Wherecom might be on to a winner.
In summary, with mobile tech developing at a faster rate than ever, virtual reality becoming a physical reality and the Internet of Things bringing us closer and closer to either tech utopia or Orwellian nightmares ā weāll have to wait and see on that one – Mobile World Congress is fast becoming the most important tech show on the planet. Now, if they could just make the halls a bit more coherent we really would be their biggest fans.
