If you want to understand where the mobile industry is heading – or not – look no further than Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona. The annual show is the CES of the mobile world, showing off the great, the good and sometimes trends we might wish we could forget.
In among the colour-changing mobile phones and “so thin you could lose it under a credit card” devices, there were some interesting ideas around the floor at MWC 2025 this week.
It was predictably all about Artificial Intelligence (AI), with the technology showing up in everything from smartphones and laptops to earbuds.
Google showed off some Android updates that expand the powers of its AI assistant, Gemini, to video, so you can point your camera and ask Gemini to solve all your problems.
Perhaps you would be more interested in AI agents, those that can carry out tasks on your behalf. Is using an AI assistant to book a restaurant reservation a good use of resources? Probably not, but it will get attention.
Getting – and keeping – attention can be difficult at a show where up 100,000 people attend. In the past, companies tried various tactics to get attention – including the infamous “booth babes”. One telecoms company offered romantic dinners with young women in exchange for business meetings. That stunt got CBoss banned from the show the following year.
This year, Samsung wheeled out some dancing robot dogs for the OLED Magic Show at its booth. Rival smartphone maker Xiaomi, meanwhile, tried to branch out from just mobile devices, showing off a bright yellow electric car that is only available in China. The company is planning to release it more broadly however.
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Lenovo opted for AI-powered laptops rather than phones. Among the commercial announcements – the ones we will see on the market – was the Yoga Flip, a laptop with a screen that unfolded and then unfolded again to bring the screen to more than 18 inches.
It also showed off a solar-powered laptop that could mean the end of battery anxiety. The prof of concept laptop has a solar panel built into its cover, giving you about an hour of video streaming when you put it in direct sunlight for around 20 minutes.
It wasn’t the only company trying to entice people with promises of solar power. Chinese phone brand Infinix showed off a concept phone with a solar panel on the back, alongside a solar-powered phone case.
That may be an alien concept to potential Irish customers, who recently endured 11 days in a row with no direct sunlight but, outside of our sun-starved environment, it might actually be a workable idea.
That is assuming the products ever make it out of the “proof of concept” stage; many ideas shown off at MWC are what is known as vapourware – items that will never make it to a consumer launch.
Deutsche Telekom tried an entirely different tack. Although it unveiled its own AI phone, the company may end up attracting attention for other reasons. Speaking during a panel discussion, chief executive Tim Höttges said that Europe needs its own Department of Government Efficiency, or Doge for those in on the ever-worsening Elon Musk Dad-joke trend, to cut through the red tape and reduce the amount of bureaucracy that mobile networks have to deal with in Europe.
He isn’t the only one to call for an efficiency drive, though one would assume without the level of chaos that Musk’s agency (of which he is not officially the leader) has brought to the proceedings. Court case after court case has struck down or paused Doge plans for wide ranging cuts. Let’s not forget the firing of nuclear experts in a Twitter-style purge, that cleared out the department of talent that, it turned out, it needed. Or the accidental cancelling of an Ebola prevention programme that had to be swiftly reversed.
Specifically, what Höttges wants is less bureaucracy and administration to deal with. And a bit of consolidation in the market would also be nice. After all, why does every market need three or four operators?
This shouldn’t be a surprise. Companies always want less red tape. It is expensive and complicated to deal with and, most importantly, it means that corporates can’t do what they feel is best for them without some sort of checks being put on the process. And yes, that can be frustrating, but relying on the better instincts of businesses hasn’t always worked out well in the past.
Would less competition in the telecoms market be in the best interests of consumers?
What corporates want and what is good for the population of the EU at large are two entirely separate things. Finding a balance between the two is more complex. Maybe, eventually, AI will be able to help them figure it out.
