The historical home of yearly mobile excess: Plaça d'Espanya in Barcelona
BARCELONA, MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS 2012 — When we shuffle from meeting to product demo to boozy party it’s easy to forget what a weird place the yearly Mobile World Congress is. Tens of thousands of attendees flood Barcelona’s hotels and commandeer its taxis, while companies from tiny to huge spend a fortune to sell and promote their wares.
As Ferris Bueller might say, if you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you might miss it. Here’s a quick look at the best, worst and weirdest of this year’s show.
Look anywhere and you'll see buzzwords and meaningless phrases. And just think: somebody thought these things upNot every stand was fully buzzword compliant. Golla's case display look more like a cool high-street clothing storeAn Ice Cream Sandwich-shaped ice-cream sandwich. And an iPhoneThe Android pavilion was turned into a giant playground for adultsIf you want to see grown men and women sliding down an enclosed chute, then Mobile World Congress is the place to beThis is the last Android photo, I promise. This wall pulsed, flashed and otherwise freaked people outThe Big O. Opera keeps coming back. We wonder how it affords a boothThis is the Spare One, an emergency phone with no display that runs on an AA battery. It will remain dormant for 15 years, and I bought one for 40 EurosQR codes were everywhere, prompting me to scream 'just give me a damn URL' every time I saw oneSamsun'g Galaxy Note practically force-fed us paint and picturesOnes and zeros. All I see now is blonde, brunette, redhead...LG's 4:3 Optimus Vu is as huge and ridiculous as you'd expectClearly, if Android phones continue to grow, they'll end up looking like thisMicrosoft was offering €100 if your phone was faster than its phone. Apparently Steve Ballmer will have to take a salary cut this year to pay for it allAmidst a dearth of anything interesting, at least the schwag is getting better: These snap around your wrist to make a nerdy braceletLG's 3-D showreels were't exactly subtle. One even featured a pole vaulter running at the cameraPegasus. Made from phone screensWhere would a trade show be without booth babes and... Batman and Batwoman?Intel decided to distract us from the Ivy Bridge delays with colorful flashing lightsIt's not just the big names that come to Barcelona. Shenghe, anyone?Mouth detection? I don't even want to askA public transport strike planned for the duration of Mobile World Congress was canceled. It would have made no difference, as everybody gets around by taxiNothing's better than a beer at the end of a long day. Unless it's Budweiser that has been left in the sun
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