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3 Crazy days at the 3GSM - Barcelona

Thursday, February 16th, 2006

We’re back from the 3GSM that happened for the first time in Barcelona.
The 4 things to retain about this show (at least for the domains I’m interested in):

Video in all forms is invading the mobile space for real, not only in beta or trials. It ranges from handsets with DVBH tuners to ip streaming and tuner technologies such as Streamezzo with sfr.
Mobile Push Mail is everywhere and I’m very puzzled by the future that such companies as Visto, Seven or Dataviz have in this area, given the giants investment and policy on the area: Microsoft is providing it for free for windows mobile devices with exchange servers, Intellisync, recently bought by Nokia will be part of the standard offering and RIM is still the leader by Far.
Widgets are coming to mobile (yes this is definitely a smaller domain than the others but I’m particularly interested in it ). Opera’s platform provides such a framework, Flash lite also does. Some other contenders are entering the area such as Bluepulse. The area is not yet mature, neither in terms of ergonomy, neither in terms of business models but this is definitely going to change the way people consult information with their devices.
Instant Messaging (IM for the friends) is also everywhere with the community/tribal aspects it brings and of course the associated network data consumptions. The companies are not numerous but legions in this area, ranging from integrated features of the handsets and carrier’s networks to small startups that are jumping in the area and traditional software providers or portals, all providing non unified and competing solutions. This area is going to be a real mess before the users can really IM together from a mobile, from one operator to another, from one country to another.