I have finally had a chance to write-up a recap from GSMA Mobile World Congress from Barcelona, which was a great conference in spite of the cold & rainy weather.   One of the big highlights of the conference was the keynote address given by Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google.  The address began by Eric presenting some impressive statistics regarding the mobile market such as:

-30% growth for Smartphone’s year over year

-It is predicted that Smartphones will surpass PC sales within 3 years

-Half the new Internet connections are for Mobile devices  

-More Google searches are performed on mobile devices than on desktops in emerging countries

-Mobile web adoption is proceeding at an 8 times faster rate than the equivalent point for desktops 10 years ago

So what is next for the mobile market?

According to Mr. Schmidt there are three components, or “Three Waves” that will encompass the future of mobile: 

1) Computing – Low power and high performance chips, innovation is still increasing

2) Connectivity – The Internet now connects 700 million public servers.  It is impossible to know exactly how large the Internet is, but it is immense, that is for certain.  Networks are now so pervasive that we can know everything about anyone– if people will let us.

To highlight how important connectivity is simply look to Long Term Evolution (LTE), which Mr. Schmidt says was the story of GSMA.

LTE changes the game.  

LTE can provide 5 or 10 megabytes, and peak performance can be even higher.  This has many implications on future applications that we can expect.

3) Cloud computing – Clouds allow multiple copies of everything.  Replicating is the key with cloud computing and the need for local copies is eliminated.  Applications exist in the clouds.

Cloud computing is here to stay; it is now the basis for the back end of mobile. 

These “3 waves” (Computing, Connectivity, Cloud Computing) intersect in mobile phones.  The phone is the meeting point and if you don’t get the 3 waves right you will fail. 

-Applications that don’t access the cloud will not work

-Phones that are not connected will not work

-Speed is crucial for these to work

Google goggles are a good example of the 3 waves making things more powerful and personal to the users.  For Google goggles to work properly the 3 waves must be present. 

The 3 waves have come together to make ‘Mobile First’.  What are the implications of Mobile First?  Well, it is very telling that Google is currently programming for the mobile first and the desktop second.  It appears the applications of the future will be designed around the mobile, and if it will not work on a mobile, it will probably not work elsewhere. 

Posted on: Monday, February 22, 2010