What were the big trends at MWC17? What are the things you need to be aware of to stay successful? Here’s a quick summary on the big trends and insights from Mobile World Congress 2017 based on hundreds of interviews, tours, presentations and announcements.

1. 7 TRENDS & INSIGHTS
MWC 2017

2. Hello there!
Bill Gates once said that “Development
and adoption of new technologies is
usually slower than we expect, but
when it happens it’s faster and the
impact is much greater than we could
ever have imagined.” (loosely quoted).
Expectations have been set extremely
high on the impact of devices, AI,
VR/AR, IoT, 5G and in particular
automation, but current experiences
and roadmaps don’t live up to the
hype. MWC 2017 provided a
somewhat sobering picture of the
current state of the market as well as
the vision and future impact.
Here’s a quick summary on the big
trends and insights from MWC based
on hundreds of interviews, tours,
presentations and announcements.
“Development and adoption of new
technologies is usually slower than we
expect, but when it happens it’s faster
and the impact is much greater than we
could ever have imagined.”
– Bill Gates

3. No big news other than that Nokia
and Blackberry are back, Sony
launched an amazing camera
phone that few people will buy,
Fairphone makes progress with
modular devices, and Chinese
manufacturers (Huawei, ZTE,
Lenovo, Oppo, etc.) have very
strong portfolios.
7 TRENDS FROM MWC17
IMAGE BY FAIRPHONE (CC BY-SA 2.0)
1. Devices

4. Industry leaders spoke about the
importance of meeting future traffic
and speed demands (100x), the
success of pre-standard trials, how
great 5G will be, radio spectrum
changes, new service verticals that
will be enabled, and that we are still
three years away from large scale
commercial rollouts.
7 TRENDS FROM MWC17
IMAGE BY MICHAEL COGHLAN (CC BY-SA 2.0)
2. 5G/Network

5. Growing demand across all
industries, 200+ technology
suppliers with some leaders such
as Telit, Eseye, Aeris, Jasper and
Fujitsu. First implementations of
the LoRa Alliance standard, Sigfox
growing coverage and ten times
higher number of real case studies
versus 2016.
7 TRENDS FROM MWC17
3. Internet of Things

6. Many exhibitors claim they do AI, but
few truly do because it is complex and
takes time. However, this is changing
fast thanks to cloud platforms (Google,
Amazon, Microsoft, Ayasdi, Sift
Science, etc.). TechSee’s Augmented
Vision provided a great example of
moving from learning from humans to
semi-automation and finally full
automation.
7 TRENDS FROM MWC17
4. AI & Machine Learning

7. Meeting expectations of
automated voice and text
communication powered by
AI/NLP is very challenging.
Currently Alexa is the only widely
supported cross-device solution
followed by Google Assistant,
Microsoft Cortana, Samsung Vive
and MindMeld.
Image: Hipmunk in Facebook messenger
7 TRENDS FROM MWC17
5. Conversational Interfaces

8. VR everywhere with amazing
showcases by HTC (Vive), Samsung
(Gear VR) and others, but few
people are buying the devices so
far. AR/Mixed Reality devices such
as Microsoft Hololens and Vuzix
are making big progress with a
growing enterprise demand.
7 TRENDS FROM MWC17
6. VR/AR

9. Mobile technology is transforming
the car industry by improving
security and safety, enabling new
business models, integrating
payments and enhancing the
customer experience with several
announcements to support
Amazon Alexa and Microsoft
Cortana voice interfaces.
Image: Vodafone concept car
7 TRENDS FROM MWC17
7. Automotive

10. Thanks to everyone who contributed
to this report.
Thank you!
We want your feedback!
Tell us what you agree, disagree
with or if you want to discuss any
of the topics in the report.
Contact us through our
website, Linkedin, Twitter or Facebook.