Summary of the event 

As always, Mobile World Congress 2008 was the place for many interesting phone launches. Touch-based user interfaces, high-quality materials and mechanical solutions were visible in many of the new phones. In addition, these phones included plenty of software, to implement new features, to provide a perfect user experience, and to enable access to mobile Internet services. Open platforms had again gained more popularity, powering a wide spectrum of products from lower-than-before segments to highly specialized multimedia devices. Many of these new phones were touched by Teleca – we work with all the leading phone manufacturers, helping them to be more successful. Working on assignments in the areas of software development, integration, customization, and testing, we were happy to see the enthusiasm around all these new phones.

Of the different mobile services, personal navigation was emphasized during this year. Navigating your way, or finding a café or restaurant nearby is a very personal experience. This was highlighted in many different product showcases. From the perspectives of operators and service providers, navigation is also likely to create new data traffic and thus increase the average revenue per user. Personal navigation, like the other mobile services promoted at MWC 2008, requires an excellent user experience in order to be successful. It requires client software well integrated with the rest of the phone functionality, and optimized end-to-end technology to connect to the services back-end. In order to maximize the addressable market to a mobile service, the client software package needs to be implemented across a large number of platforms, both open as well as proprietary. This is a traditional stronghold of Teleca: we have the skills and track record to build software for all the leading platforms in the market.

We also presented a couple of concept demos, showcasing open source software development and mobile Internet services. Our solution demo of a mobile browser based on the well-known Webkit open source core also gained a lot of interest. More and more applications (in some cases also complete platforms) are based on open source components, benefiting from the community innovation, fast time-to-market, and shared development cost of common elements. But to productize those components requires a fair amount of integration work, as well as the development and customization of additional features on top and around of the common core. Again, Teleca can provide the needed development and integration services to make this happen.

Final day of the show

The final day of the show is starting. The last day of the Mobile World Congress has typically been somewhat more quiet than the previous ones. Overall, I think this has been a very good show. As always, there is so much of everything that one is likely to miss quite a few interesting smaller things; that is the drawback of a big event. However, the positive side is that all the people you need to meet are here, so it relatively easy to cover a wide spectrum of business discussions within just a few days.

One particular area that is interesting to explore is all those smaller companies. Some of them are relevant technology partners, and others provide a good foresight where the industry might be heading to. This year, I sense that their business models and technical solutions are getting more and more mature, providing a higher probability that they can survive in the market and have an opportunity to grow. The flip side of the coin may, then, be the pure innovativeness. So far, I have not seen any absolute "wow" within these companies. But there is one day left to continue exploring, and in case someone is reading my blog and recognizes her/his company as being one to potentially have this "wow", you know where to find me!

The party event I attended yesterday evening finished at the same time as the one on the previous night  started - so I got plenty of sleep; therefore, I am well prepared for the day.

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2008

Personal navigation: the other trend

For my blog yesterday, I was not so well prepared; blogging on the findings and feelings in a trade show is a bit hard if you stay the whole day within the stand. Now, I have had a chance to also look around. Here are the findings and feelings so far; stay tuned for more.

Touch is obviously a big thing in mobile devices this year. Several manufacturers were showing phones with touch: it was either a full screen with touch, a separate command pad (with virtual keys represented by changing graphics), or a combination of both. A tactile feedback was provided by the phone vibra. To me, the influence of the iPhone was clearly visible. I am not saying that others are somehow copying Apple, I would rather say iPhone woke up the industry a year ago, and created a lot of good inspiration and action.

Another visible theme is personal navigation. Finding your way, or finding a cafe or restaurant nearby is of course a very personal experience. This has also been highlighted in the different product showcases. It looks like this is an area where the industry is moving fast forward: as the functionality gets integrated into a wide spectrum (and volume) of mobile handsets, the services are bound to boom fast as well. I would guess it is rather safe to predict that we will see a wide range of services in this area, some rather basic and obvious, but also many very innovative, potentially based on communities rather than pure service provisioning.

Impressions of the first day

The first day is gone. Did I have good meetings? Yes, I think so. Quite a few planned, and then a couple of ad-hoc meetings that took place after a brief discussion down at the stand. I did not yet have time to go and look around (I hope I will have a bit of time to do so before the show ends), but I had a chance to have a dialogue with people coming to meet us at our stand.

Having a stand at an exhibition is not so easy if you are a software services company. What do you actually show, and how do you catch the attention of people who could potentially be your customers? At our stand, we have a combination of a few things. First, we present our company, our business, our competencies, and our global reach and scale in a very pragmatic and practical way. Second, we have included a set of customer references to give an insight to our track record. And third, we have created a couple of showcases that demonstrate our skills in some of the hot areas, including mobile user experience, end-to-end solutions, and open source software. After exiting the product business last year, and becoming a focused services company for the mobile industry, we have now managed to attract people to meet us who were not there last year; I see this as a good sign, a sign that we have managed to get our message through.

One major trend this year seems to be touch; this fits us well, as we are promoting our vision, which concludes “Touched by Teleca”.

On the starting blocks

Today it all begins: four packed days of the Mobile World Congress. I wrote this blog entry during my flight to Barcelona on Sunday evening. A leading Finnish newspaper had an article on one of the most influential persons within the mobile phone industry; the business unit headed by this gentleman produces more than one million phones every day. Among other things, he said: “The services must be truly easy to discover and to use.” Although this is not a new topic, I expect it will be one of the themes at MWC as well: how to increase the use of mobile services, by ensuring that the user experience of taking them into use, and later using them, is as smooth as possible. As always, we should hide the technology from the user; the truth may well be that the most simple-looking system has the most complex technology behind it. This calls for good software inside the phone, as well as in the complete end-to-end chain.

I’m also eager to see our own stand this year. I have seen the sketches, and the design reflects the Scandinavian simplicity in the pure form. I am personally a big fan of this design, especially enjoying the masterpieces of Finnish and Danish designers. However, the important thing is not the stand itself but the substance within it; I am expecting to have good meetings and discussions with our customers as well as partners alike. Come and see us in Hall 8 (8A70). We have no separate stand crew; every single person on duty is a representative of our global sales or management team.

MONDAY, JANUARY 19, 2008

Starting the countdown, and the blog 

The Mobile World Congress is just a couple of weeks away. And I'm starting my blog, which I will keep updating during the show. I have two principles here: First, I'm planning on creating the content by myself, trying to reflect my findings and feelings during the hectic week. And second, I'm planning on using mobile devices only to perform the task.

In the field of Telecom-related software, we have witnessed many interesting trends during the last year. One is obviously the desire for "cool" user experiences (and the aim to combine "coolness" with good usability). This trend was very much driven by the launch of Apple's iPhone, but the concepts and philosophy have been promoted by many other players since then. Another breakthrough has taken place in mobile Internet services, where the supply (and competition) by traditional Internet ecosystem players, as well as mobile phone vendors, has greatly intensified. A third trend, where we are witnessing a continuous growth rather than a sudden change, is the use of open source software as an important building block for mobile software. This trend is visible in application software, as well as in platform software for mobile devices.

These three trends also happen to be among the areas we have been setting as our strategic new focus areas. Having the competence to provide software development and integration services for all major mobile platforms, we are in a unique position to help our customers be more successful. A large part of the development in these areas currently takes place onshore, but as technologies and solutions get more mature, the effort moves toward offshore operations in an efficient combination with onshore engineers. I welcome you to come and meet us at the Mobile World Congress. We will tell you more how we can help you, and give you an insight of our services capabilities, our technology skills, and our on-shore and off-shore operations. I also welcome you to continue reading this blog during the show, and come by the Teleca stand to have a chat in the "good old-fashioned way" when you see me in Barcelona!

POSTED BY SAMI INKINEN, CTO AT 10:03 AM