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March - 2009 - issue > Tech Tracker
Ideas Abound to Outbid Recession at the Mobile World Congress
Eureka Bharali
Sunday, March 1, 2009
The three-day Mobile World Congress (MWC) witnessed diversification to be a new strategy for the top-notch firms. The companies have approached beleaguered economy either by exploring the clouds or by stepping on to their competitor’s base.

The software service bellwether Microsoft has made its effort to diversify by clamping interoperability and the company’s CEO Steve Ballmer predicts that it will be the future of mobile. The hardcore mobile firms have a different take on it, with RIM considering Blackberry’s future in social networking and Vodafone foreseeing a bright mobile outlook in Internet. Analysts see these reactions as a defiance of the industry against recession.
Witnessing the shrinking market, 17 cell phone brands have made an agreement to share a universal charger by 2012, a move much appreciated in the Barcelona event. Nokia, which won for Outstanding Environmental Contribution at MWC, and Microsoft stepped into the retail space through Ovi Software Store and SkyMarket, a move to emulate Apple Stores that saw its shares soaring amidst downturn. “Apple wasn’t here, but there was a big shadow. You heard people talking about the iPhone all the time,” said Roberta Cozza, an analyst for the research group Gartner.

With less than 50,000 attendees compared to the previous year’s 55,000, the event bore a sober look. It’s the application stores, which made the big noise at the show. Sony Ericsson’s Idou with 12-megapixel and the range of wrist phones presented a direct competition to the camcorders in the market and LG’s endeavor at the CES. Until a couple of years ago, the ‘wow factor’ of a device was the hardware features and the technology, but Apple has diverted the trend towards applications and services.

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