Barcelona gets a warm Samsung Wave

From climate change to a recuperating world economy, 2010 has had the most interesting start, with industries converging to set the stage for the year ahead. But, at the GSMA Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, things started out with a chill. While one may attribute this to the 6-degree-Celsius temperature, peppered with rain, the event did have a cold start.

What brought on the heat wave is a development from Samsung — the introduction of the ‘Samsung Wave’. News of this had been floating around for the last couple of days, but the Samsung Wave still managed to make a noise! For what could be taken as a new benchmark in mobile devices and application development, the service has already started capturing everyone’s imagination.

Before we get into the implications of a product like this, let’s understand the features that set it apart from existing services in the market. To begin with — the aesthetics. The product looks elegant and sleek with a glossy finish. It comes to you with a Super AMOLED screen, which promises to enhance your mobile viewing experience.

What next? The Samsung Wave is the first mobile device from the Samsung family to operate on the BADA platform. BADA is a next-generation platform that is here to change the way you would have probably used applications so far. The platform works on an ‘open’ format, which is poised to reform the way people can create and buy applications. It’s like nothing you have ever used!

The third feature that sets Wave apart is the ‘Social Hub’, which functions on a unique push service that integrates everything from your contacts to emails on to a single delivery point. We anticipate that all these features, coupled with the impressive application BADA platform, will boost consumption of entertainment and related services.

Not just a phone
Over the years, there have been key developments during the various phases of the mobile phone. It has moved away from the ear and come in front of your eyes, where you possibly have a lot more to do than just calling. So far, Apple has been a dominant player in the mobile applications space.

However, with BADA, the world is in for a space that leads from Applications 1.0 to Applications 2.0, where just about anyone can become a developer and start selling apps. Figuratively, you could just be a buyer and a seller at the same time, running your own virtual market place for applications. The beauty of all this is that you could just be someone who is nowhere close to ‘mobile technology’.

Day One for me also included a very important meeting with my dear friend, Paul Jacobs, from Qualcomm. His predictions for this year are in the areas of mHealth and mEducation

Termed as the only event to reckon with, the MWC this year too has attracted delegations from across the world, comprising telecom operators, device manufacturers, platform service providers and content owners. After the Samsung Wave announcement, the atmosphere is attuned to what could be the next phase of growth for the industry. But I would still wait and watch for what else is in store.

Over the next four days, the MWC will witness some of the most exciting moments that may become a scale to overtake. As we begin with the initial sessions on Day One, two significant observations are that devices are going to be the most important factor from a mobility point of view and the focus, so far, has been on possibilities posed by ‘video delivery’ and ‘video platforms’ in a telecom-enabled economy.

(The author is managing director & CEO, Hungama Mobile & MEF Asia Board chairman)