3GSM Aftermath
by Aner Ravon

I’ve been to enough trade shows by now to know that it is all in the eye of the beholder. A show is good if it was good for you, and 3GSM treated us very well this year. Our service received great feedback, we got covered by El Pais (English translation here) and in addition have generated very high quality business leads. That’s always a very good feeling. I have also managed to tie some loose ends and come full circle with people I lost touch (or good rhythm) with. I guess that’s what a show is essentially about. There were a few share-worthy notes, though:

1. Content is king, again. From low level switch makers, through middleware providers and all the way end user devices - EVERYBODY is betting on the convergence of content. Music, Video, Games, from the PC, from the Internet, it all seems to be rapidly maturing for mobile.

2. Google, Apple, MSN and MySpace did not make an impact at the show. Whether simply not into mobile or just planning to go solo, I question the outcome of this low-key approach. Yahoo! made an exception by pushing a Yahoo Go! booth right at the entry of Hall 7. Great service, by the way, although too “high end” and therefore limited to dedicated Yahoo! fans only.

3. Chauvinism - Are we all dirty old horny men or does someone in LogicaCMG deserve to get his ass kicked? Naked “booth babes” travelling the halls covered with body paint is not just tasteless, it is degrading. And what the hell do naked women have to do with Operator Middleware? I am no conservative, but this was simply bad PR, “gentlemen”!

4. Feminism - The year is 2007 and still, nearly all executives I met were men. Why? When will this finally change already?

5. Consumer - in, mobile productivity - out! I haven’t seen as many new Smartphones or mobile office suits as before. Every handset manufacturer has showcased at least a couple of new media players of different shapes and flavors. We should see a lot of Video and Music phones coming out this year! Good or bad news for Apple?

6. Nightlife - The parties were good this year, the locations were posh, the people were happy, the houses were full. Barcelona being such a beautiful city didn’t hurt either.

7. Connectivity - Can 3GSM finally get good 3G coverage? How does it look when we pitch the value of “not working so good” 3G for crying out loud?

See you next year!

Aner Ravon
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