- last edited on by
Lizzie
Hello!
MWC '24 wrapped up last week, and I thought I'd put together a few key takeaways of the event. I shan't go too deep, but of course you're welcome to query any aspect of the event and if I spent time looking at it, I'll gladly answer 🙂
Innovation galore
From HMD's Fusion devkit to Lenovo's transparent-screened laptop, MWC is always guaranteed to see the latest and greatest the ecosystem has to offer. There were a few products in the Android world that caught my eye -
TCL
I was particularly fond of TCL's new Nxtpaper products featuring version 3.0 of their technology, as it so incredibly bridges the gap between modern display requirements and that of e-ink. The displays were responsive, easy on the eyes, and bring with them the added benefit of a natural writing feel, if you're the type who likes to scribble on their devices 🙂
Lenovo/Moto
Though not Android per-se, Lenovo's fully transparent laptop display concept is a glimpse into the future of the devices we might be using. I'm getting strong year 3000 vibes from this:
Bringing back to Android though, they were also showing off a detachable Windows/Android hybrid device, the ThinkBook Plus Hybrid, offering an Android tablet that plugs into an Intel-powered Windows base station. Details were light on the interoperability between the two OSes, other than some shared partitions for file management, but it is still early days, with a summer release on the cards. I didn't snap a photo there, but here's one with credit to Ars:
Is it something I'd use? Not really. I think the theme of 2024 in the Android world is convergence, not separation. Which is why I spent a little extra time with the moto side of the stand talking about the capabilities of Thinkphone, demonstrating their own equivalent of Samsung's DeX, Moto Ready For. I also got to take a peek at their foldable concept up close, but maintain the use case for something like this just isn't there for me, especially learning the obvious one, a bracelet, required another accessory for the device to magnetise to -
It's a cool concept, and I suppose the point is more to demonstrate their display prowess, which this very much does.
On the subject of flexible displays, foldables were everywhere. Including, no less, one from Energizer, the company that this year also brought us the 28000mAh capacity brick of a phone. Techno's lineup alone is nearly as many foldables as we'd seen in total across the ecosystem a couple of years ago -
Rugged & Dedicated
ODMs & OEMs were everywhere offering their products and solutions, all white-labelled, to the masses, and there were some impressive demonstrations, from devices sitting in tanks of water to being embedded into the floor while thousands of attendees trod on them (a display I first saw with Bullitt in 2019, RIP).
The variance of dedicated & enterprise tech was wonderful. I moved between stands showing specialised Android-powered camera systems, including not only the typical FLIR sensors, but also detachable snake cameras, night-vision systems, and more. There were devices for digital signage, kiosks, extreme environments (a few explosion-safe options for example), and much more - all powered by Android.
But it wasn't just enterprise, I saw a general increase also in the for-purpose Android market. The number of handheld gaming devices, wearables, and more running Android was exceptional.
Tip of the iceberg
It goes without saying there was so much to see, and I enjoyed reconnecting with partners and vendors of software solutions for Android Enterprise while I was there too.
Beyond the Android innovations, there was an obvious push on AI (it was everywhere), wearables (Apple certainly seems to be spurring competition in the xR space), and a whole gargantuan heap of network and infrastructure that's amazing to see, but sits way above my paygrade 🙂
It was a blast!
Here's a short video of me walking around the event:
In the picture that's the night vision sensor demo, and it worked great. So did the inspection cam in another demo, and FLIR too 🙂
Honestly just the size of the place and the sheer number of organisations there is otherworldly. I got to also speak to so many mobility vendors all putting their own spin on AMAPI and AE. It was wicked
My last one was 2019, so it's been a considerable amount of time. I'd say it ebbs and flows for me. Overall it gets bigger and better of course, tech and innovations change and there's always something new and exciting to improve on the years prior, but there were vendors I'd hoped to see that have simply stopped going since COVID, and far fewer folks in our ecosystem than I remember. Hopefully it picks back up.
Data wise there were 80k attendees last year, 101k this year, and it felt like it too. Busy areas were shoulder to shoulder!
