Qualcomm speaks, Sony takes selfies, and news from elsewhere
Good morning, Mobile World Congresspeople!
You sure can do a lot with a little glass-covered rectangle, eh? Much more on that during day two of the expo.
Fa un fred que pela (“It’s so cold that I’m peeling”) is a thing that Catalans say. You might too, because today will be cloudy and windy, with a high of 5°C (41°F).
What to watch for today
A keynote smorgasbord. There will be a wide variety of material on the main stage today, kicking off with a panel about the “foundations of the digital economy” with CEOs from Ericsson, McAfee, Rakuten, and Red Hat. Later, reps from the UN and the World Food Programme will discuss how technology can make the world better. At the end of the day, execs from GE and PwC will be joined by Formula 1 driver Fernando Alonso, for some reason, to ponder “the fourth industrial revolution.”
The future of work. We may be biased, but a breakfast panel at the Facebook space in the Fira, moderated by Quartz editor Jason Karaian, should be good. After a “Champagne breakfast” (we told you it would be good), tech and telecoms execs will discuss how technology—mobility, AI, automation, and the like—is changing the nature of work.
A big deal. Qualcomm president Cristiano Amon will hold a press conference at noon, and he is sure to field many questions about the latest twists and turns in the company’s takeover battle with Broadcom. Yesterday, Qualcomm’s board seemingly adopted a softer stance toward the $100 billion-plus offer, which was promptly dismissed by Broadcom as disingenuous. “We are in interesting times,” said Qualcomm’s Europe chief Enrico Salvatori at MWC yesterday.
Building mobile #brands. Advertising trade body IAB is running a day-long series on mobile marketing, with major “over the top” players—Google, Facebook, Baidu—holding forth on how best to deliver ads and content to phones. From chatbots to “brand safety,” there will be plenty to talk about for marketers.
We did notch see this coming. Taiwanese electronics company Asus is hosting a launch event in the evening, rumored to be a first look at its latest “ZenPhone” flagship smartphone. Based on leaks, it looks exceedingly similar to Apple’s iPhone X, down to the notch at the top of the screen where front-facing cameras sit. Why you’d want to copy such a mocked design choice is unclear, but see for yourself on the livestream.
From dusk ’til dawn. The Internet of Things meets horticulture at the IoT Garden Party at the Fira. A marketing company for dating sites is hosting MWC attendees at a rooftop pool for people in the industry, who presumably know the algorithmically optimal way to mingle. A younger crowd will flock to the 4YFN High Five party to celebrate the startup-focused initiative’s fifth anniversary (and there’s a related afterparty that goes until 3am).
What everyone is talking about
The final keynote on the first day of the conference was an awkward affair, pitting US Federal Communications Commission chairman Ajit Pai against the European Commission’s digital czar Andrus Ansip. It was a microcosm of how the EU and US approach regulation, with Pai going it alone in defending repealing net neutrality in the US in the name of “restoring internet freedom” while Ansip declared himself a “strong believer” in an open internet. “I do not want a digital motorway for the lucky few while others use a digital dirt track,” Ansip said.
CNN anchor Kristie Lu Stout, who chaired the panel, asked the audience for a show of hands of who supported the EU following the US approach to telecoms governance, and very few went up.
Not so fast, said the carriers, who grumbled that they got routinely soaked by governments. Sunil Mittal of Bharti Airtel asked those in favor of net neutrality to consider what it means for the companies investing hundreds of billions of dollars to build internet infrastructure. “Have a thought for them,” he suggested. #NetNeutrality started trending on Twitter in Barcelona.
More highlights from yesterday
Sony tried to steal Samsung’s thunder. The Japanese electronics group unveiled its newest high-end phones, the Xperia XZ2 and XZ2 Compact. They feature narrower bezels than previous models, and have just about every bell and whistle you’d expect from premium devices, including fast processors, 4GB of memory, and 64GB of storage. But for a company with such a rich history in audio, it’s noteworthy that it decided to remove the headphone jacks.
Facebook played nice. The social network’s infrastructure chief shared the spotlight with telco partners at a media briefing. Instead of giving updates on its more outlandish infrastructure projects, like a giant internet-beaming drone, a subdued Facebook announced low-key trials and projects focused on insidery things like backhaul and RAN.
Google did some housekeeping. The search leader announced a slew of incremental upgrades to Android, its AR offerings, and Google Assistant at a (very early) morning briefing. The news included more languages for Assistant, AR partnerships with Porsche and FC Barcelona, and updates to its AR developer’s framework.
Chart interlude
In case you couldn’t tell, MWC skews heavily male; 77% of last year’s attendees were men. This is reflected in the keynote program, too: Of the 41 bigwigs listed as keynote speakers, 29 of them are men. And half of the women scheduled to give keynotes during the week appear on a single panel—the “Women4Tech” session on the expo’s final day.
Mike likes…
Another day, another 3D selfie. On Sunday, we got to play around with Samsung’s new “AR Emoji,” turning Mike into a twitchy cartoon version of himself. Yesterday, he subjected himself to Sony’s revamped 3D face scanning app, built into the camera on its new Xperia XZ2 phones. You can see a gallery of attendees’ somewhat zombie-like scans on Sony’s Facebook page, and behold this beauty:
Seen and heard
“They need us,” said one European telco exec, confident that the balance of power between Facebook and the industry was shifting.
The South American menu option at lunch sold out quickly. Get there early if you want it.
Internet access in Nokia’s press room on Monday was only via ethernet, with reps from the network equipment company fearing that more wireless connections would mess up the wifi on its demos outside.
Mixed metaphor alerts: We heard telecoms bosses describe 5G investments as “reinventing the moon” and praising their products as “taking people’s hearts by storm.”
Match these countries’ booths with their correct slogans (eg, Korea: Be Inspired)
News from around the world
Apple is making an extra-large iPhone. The company is reportedly prepping a new smartphone lineup to reverse sluggish sales of the expensive iPhone X, according to Bloomberg. Meanwhile, bullish comments from investor Warren Buffett drove Apple shares close to an all-time high.
New Zealand’s opposition party picked a new leader. The youngest of the National Party contenders, 41-year-old Simon Bridges promises generational change. He’ll likely challenge prime minister Jacinda Ardern—even younger at 37—in the 2020 election. Part Maori, Bridges is the first member of the country’s indigenous people to lead a major party.
GE plunged as it overhauled its board. The embattled conglomerate said three outsiders would replace some of its longest-serving members, as it shrinks its board (paywall) and many of its sprawling businesses. Its shares plunged to the lowest level since July 2010 after the company revealed that federal regulators are examining its accounting practices.
Matters of debate
Companies shouldn’t cut ties with gun owners. Warren Buffett argues against imposing his personal views on his employees and shareholders.
We’re entering the age of human climate migration. Extreme weather from climate change displaced more than 1 million people in 2017.
Taiwan needs to preserve its history. A push to modernize is destroying crucial artifacts.
Surprising discoveries
American psychopaths are different from Dutch psychopaths. The most salient qualities in the US are callousness and a lack of empathy; in the Netherlands they’re irresponsibility and neediness.
Snowball fights broke out in the Vatican. Rome, and some of the world’s top tourist destinations, are coated in several centimeters of snow.
Infants expect people to be prejudiced. Babies expect a woman doling out cookies to favor those who look more like her.
Our best wishes for an inspiring day at the expo. Please send any news, tips, South American recipes, and hundred-billion-dollar takeover bids to us, Jason, Joon, and Mike. The best way to keep up with news while you’re on the go this week is the Quartz app for iPhone and Android.