The Mobile World Congress, the most important mobile communication event in the world, opened its doors in Barcelona on Monday. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has vowed to press on with plans to bring the developing world online. But that wasn't the only thing turning heads at the expo.
Two thousand exhibitors and close to 100-thousand visitors, the Mobile World Congress is considered a must for those in the Internet industry. Each exhibition hall is packed with the latest technology from driverless cars to a virtual reality world… something Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg believes will be The future platform. Zuckerberg also unveiled a new project that seeks to accelerate the evolution of technologies by sharing work with other companies.
Chinese companies were well represented. Shang Bing, Chairman of China Mobile, the largest wireless operator in terms of subscribers, delivered a keynote speech highlighting the rapid growth the company enjoyed in 2015. With 5G on the horizon, further expansion is expected.
Huawei used the event to launch a new tablet, the MateBook which the company hopes will further develop their world brand.
But it's not just the size of the China market that has impressed here. The quality of the product from the various China companies has also gotten attention. Add to that – it would appear there are more China exhibitors here than ever before.Some 34 billion devices are expected to be connected to the Internet by 2020. The market may be competitive… but this exhibition shows it's also increasingly innovative.
