5G will change the game, and other takeaways from Mobile World Congress

The great technology show that is Barcelona’s Mobile World Congress is over for another year. As ever, it did not disappoint in terms of size and scale and I enjoyed a couple of days there last week, catching up on the latest developments.

Here are my takeaways for 2016.

1. Connected devices

As you would expect, a major theme was connected devices, with some parts of the expo looking more like a car showroom, and various robots trundling around the place. One that is quite fun is LG’s Rolling Bot, which has a laser that will send your cat crazy. It also has a built-in camera and speaker, which could be used remotely – maybe to tell your kids in the other room to turn the TV off and get into bed. Interesting idea…

2.Virtual reality

It is also clear how massive virtual reality is going to be. If you didn’t have a VR application on your stand it was almost not worth showing up. I tried a few of the headsets that are in development, which offer more of a 360-degree experience and promise to become smaller and less ungainly. There is also still a lot of fun to be had watching someone else leaping around and ‘shooting’ at thin air.

3. 5G

I have written about 5G before, but the signs are emerging that it is becoming part of the real world, rather than just a discussion topic. The potential benefits here are amazing, from the capability to enable and simplify complex environments – say a port or manufacturing facility, where there are thousands of moving parts, or a city centre, where traffic, people, stores, signage and even parking meters interact – by connecting everything together.

The pure response time is astonishing. Ericsson (who are currently part of a 5G network trial in Finland) predict that 5G's latency will be around one millisecond - unperceivable to a human and about 50 times faster than 4G. This is what will enable things like smart cities, driverless cars and robots to be a viable, reliable reality, with instant reaction times.

Finally, 5G offers the potential of connectivity for all as it is enabled by fibre, which is technically easier to implement and lower cost than traditional cabling. So it can get to more of the places where it’s not possible currently to have a fixed broadband connection. Good news for the UK, with all of those mountains and valleys.

4. Smartphone developments

In terms of smartphones, Samsung’s Galaxy S7 edge is pretty impressive. It looks great and has an improved camera, bigger battery, more memory and a sturdier, more robust frame. Serious gamers will enjoy a more powerful processor and dedicated game control centre too.

As for overall trends, customisation seems to be key. I had the chance to see some very interesting developments that are still under wraps. Obviously I can’t say too much now, although phones are not quite at the stage of turning into James Bond gadgets, so no boats or planes yet! But we are definitely going to see the standard form factor changing very soon. And this will allow us to do more of the things we want to – using top quality, interchangeable attachments – with our trusty devices. Watch this space.

5. Public safety

Finally, safety is clearly a developing area of interest. Whether it’s personal assistants like the Rolling Bot that can keep watch over your home and family, or start-up ideas to improve public safety, there is a lot of work in development. One prototype I saw aims to reduce the impact of blind spots for motorists, by tracking where these will be and flashing a warning if there is another vehicle or a pedestrian up ahead. Maybe the organisers of the Congress should have some of these in the exhibition next year, to stop people being run over by the ever-growing army of robots?

If you went along or have been reading about this year’s event I would be interested to hear your thoughts.

Photo credit: Arturo Pardavila III