The dominant theme of the Mobile World Congress 2010 held in Barcelona was software, much to the chagrin of skeptics who dubbed it as the creative destruction of the mobile industry, as right now the service landscape from which mobile operators are gaining revenue in mobile data is very thin, with most of the revenues coming from data service subscriptions that are flat fees. Mobile operators need to build out services with greater customer experiences, those that can be defined in terms of quality, flexibility, and blended with social media for consumers or with unified communications for business users.

Predictably, innovations were high on applications. Perhaps the biggest attraction of the event was Windows Mobile, much like Palm at CES 2009. The tech world was waiting to see whether Microsoft would finally deliver a mobile operating system, which could not only address all of its previous issues but also advance the way smartphones work and offer a competitive edge over the iPhone OS, Android, and WebOS. Microsoft seems to have started from the scratch and created a user interface that is completely different from any iteration of Windows Mobile. The design team has stripped away everything that was unnecessary and only kept the most relevant information to the user.

The big themes this year were around operating systems and user interfaces. Mobile health and M2M (machine-to-machine) were also high on the agenda. One particular announcement that might interest India was the launch of the ‘world’s cheapest phone’ – a handset from Vodafone expected to be selling for under $15.
Most top companies had utilized the platform to make new announcements. Moto’s offering to the United States and Europe was its Cliq XT/Quench announcement, the A45 Eco for Latin America and Asia got the Google Android-powered MotoRoi, XT800 Zihshang, and MT710. Samsung had more in its Mobile World Congress stand than just the shiny new Samsung Wave. Making a handset that is both rugged and attractive, Samsung unveiled B2100 and E2370, with main focus on durability rather than productivity.