Pat Phelan: Telecomms DisruptorSubverting telecomms from the edge of industry

Just getting back to normal and a 3GSM/MWC wrap-up post.
Well besides the amazing people I meet the whole event was completely underwhelming.

First to the Ireland stand, I know people including me give EI a bit of a hard time but this was excellent, the stand was 100 feet from the Microsoft and the build/layout was futuristic whilst allowing companies to chat, seriously, one of my favourite stands at the show.
For me Nubiq and Sentry Wireless stuck out by a long yard as ones to watch not only for their products but for the knowledge of the teams operating the stand especially Grace from Nubiq whose knowledge of the product and ability to smile at potential customers was a huge advantage.

As for the rest

Where were Apple?
Apple needs to engage the community and their absence from this event was a huge black mark against them in my opinion.

Batteries?
I walked and walked and couldn’t find a single company with a solution to this enormous problem, due to constant connectivity issues I used 3G most days and usually in the afternoon I had to head to the wonderful staff at the Nokia stand for a recharge.

Handsets
Lots of these but not of huge interest to me to tell you the truth, lots of other people tell this story way better than me.
Although I was hugely impressed by Modu and their modular phone for the fashion conscious.

Suits
If you weren’t in a suit you stuck out like a sore thumb, Mr Feldman stuck out like a sore fist.

Content
Where were the content providers?, lots of channels and streams but very little in the way of original content.

SpinVox’s stand got the overall international show winner in my opinion, I finally got to meet with SpinVoxer James Whatley who was kind enough to give me a tour, all the dolls you see below are actually spelling out live SpinVox messages.

Innovation
Where were the innovators ?, I was looking forward to the innovation section but it was plonked in building 7 in a tiny corner which looked like a complete afterthought.

All in all, a bit of a beano, lots of execs doing high fives and attending lots of parties but light on the stuff I went for, nevertheless we done a few deals with smaller providers at pre-arranged meetings but I think I will give this a miss next year.