MWC 2015 Wrap: 5 Trends That Shaped Mobile World Congress

Advertisement

Mobile World Congress officially kicked off on Monday in Barcelona — with Samsung (OTCMKTS:SSNLF) getting a head start on the competition by launching its Galaxy S6, Galaxy 6S Edge and Samsung Pay on Sunday.

MWC 2015, Mobile World Congress
Source: Mobile World Congress

If you missed the big reveals from that first day, you can catch up with our MWC 2015 day one gallery.

While that first day was the big one for flagship smartphone announcements, there has been a steady stream of new product reveals since then. Exhibitors ranging from established consumer electronics giants to Chinese manufacturers that aren’t (yet) household names in the U.S. to eager startups have all been showing off what they hope is the next killer device or service.

Given MWC’s status as the biggest annual event focused on mobile gear, these trends are going to set the stage for how smartphones, tablets, smartwatches and associated technology are likely to play out in 2015. With MWC 2015 winding down, here are five trends that came to dominate the show.

MWC 2015 Trends: Apple in the Crosshairs

MWC 2015, MWC Trend Apple iPhone 6
Source: Apple

Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) was a no-show at Mobile World Congress, as usual. But the presence of Apple was felt everywhere.

Samsung’s Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge are an obvious response to Apple overtaking it as the world’s top smartphone maker. After repeatedly refusing to conform to Apple’s design-driven approach to smartphones, the new Galaxy phones ditch the traditional plastic, adopting the premium glass-and-metal aesthetic popularized by Apple. The new Galaxies also prominently attack an iPhone strongpoint — photography.

Samsung also directly countered the popular Apple Pay mobile payment standard with its own version called Samsung Pay.

Other smartphone manufacturers were exploiting what cracks they could find in the iPhone juggernaut.

HTC’s One M9 has front-facing BoomSound speakers, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Sony Corp (ADR) (NYSE:SNE) chose to showcase mid-range smartphones that sell for half the price or less than a new iPhone 6; Blackphone is laser focused on security and Huawei offered up a 7-inch phablet for those who feel an iPhone 6 Plus is still too small.

MWC 2015 Trends: Samsung and BlackBerry Need to Make Waves in 2015

MWC 2015, MWC Trend blackberry
Source: BlackBerry

Two companies that face a make or break year in 2015 came out swinging at Mobile World Congress.

Despite the release of the Classic (which it hoped would spur long-time fans to upgrade their devices) and the unique, business-focused Passport, BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) remained in a tenuous position through 2014. Its global smartphone market share declined nearly 70% through the year, dropping it to just 0.4% in Q4 2014.

The company showed up at MWC 2015 with a new mid-range BlackBerry Leap and flashed a prototype slider smartphone sporting a curved edge touchscreen display with a slide out QWERTY keyboard. It announced integration with Samsung’s KNOX enterprise security service and launched a suite of enterprise software products that will be cross-platform compatible with BB10, iOS, Android and Windows.

Samsung is far from being on the brink, but mobile sales have been the driver of the behemoth’s profit in recent years, and it stumbled badly in 2014. Profits were down and the Galaxy S5 flagship smartphone booked disappointing sales that allowed Apple to surge past it.

Samsung was a huge presence at MWC 2015, dominating the early headlines with its Unpacked event and taking multiple “Best in Show” awards for the Galaxy S6 Edge.

MWC 2015 Trends: Virtual Reality Gaining Momentum

MWC 2015, MWC Trend virtual reality
Source: Sony

While smartphones command much of the attention at Mobile World Congress, another high tech device earned significant spotlight time.

Virtual reality headsets were being shown off, and HTC’s VIVE took TechRadar’s award for the best device at MWC 2015 (beating out the Galaxy S6 Edge). The VIVE combines the VR visuals of other headsets like Facebook Inc’s (NASDAQ:FB) Oculus Rift with external cameras for 3D movement in space.

Sony was also showing off its Project Morpheus VR headset and committed to having it available as a Playstation 4 accessory in 2016.

MWC 2015 Trends: Microsoft Low-Key But Impressive

MWC 2015, MWC Trend microsoft
Source: Microsoft

Microsoft continued to impress at Mobile World Congress. The company once again showed the maturity, patience and willingness to adapt that gas become a hallmark under the leadership of CEO Satya Nadella.

Rather than trying to clobber the iPhone with a super-spec Lumia smartphone, Microsoft was showing off mid-range Lumias priced at $250 and under. These are the kind of budget-friendly devices that will help Windows to continue slowly growing its mobile market share by avoiding direct competition with the iPhone.

One of the most popular products at MWX was its Universal Folding Keyboard, an inexpensive, compact mobile keyboard inspired by its popular Surface Type covers. Showing Microsoft’s newfound willingness to play nice with everyone, this keyboard is compatible with Windows, iOS and Android devices. It even lets users switch between two devices (of any of the platforms) at the touch of a button.

Microsoft also managed to benefit from some of Samsung’s thunder by arranging to have a “Microsoft Apps” folder prominently displayed on the Galaxy S6 (with Skype, OneNote and OneDrive pre-installed). Samsung and Microsoft are also offering Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S Edge owners 115GB of free OneDrive cloud storage.

MWC 2015 Trends: Smartwatch Makers Not Throwing in the Towel

MWC 2015, MWC Trend smartwatch
Source: Huawei

Despite the looming spectre of the Apple Watch and concerns that it could dominate the market, obliterating competitors left and right, smartwatch and wearable efforts were on prominent display at MWC 2015.

China’s Huawei made waves with a new smartwatch running Google Inc’s (NASDAQ:GOOG, NASDAQ:GOOGL) Android Wear that appears to set a new standard for mimicking traditional round watch faces. LG was showing off its round-faced Urbane LTE smartwatch that looks quite stylish and even makes phone voice calls — no smartphone required.

And Pebble was showing off the new color display of the Pebble Time (without sacrificing its 7-day battery life), fresh off of setting yet another Kickstarter record.

Clearly, the Apple Watch is not going to pull an iPhone on the smartwatch industry without a fight.

As of this writing, Brad Moon did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.

More From InvestorPlace

Brad Moon has been writing for InvestorPlace.com since 2012. He also writes about stocks for Kiplinger and has been a senior contributor focusing on consumer technology for Forbes since 2015.


Article printed from InvestorPlace Media, https://investorplace.com/2015/03/mwc-2015-trends/.

©2024 InvestorPlace Media, LLC