When the top executives of the world's wireless industry gather next
week in Barcelona for their annual trade show, cellphones will take a
back seat to talk of cars, electric meters and insulin monitors.
That
idea of empowering new devices with wireless connections has been
percolating for years. General Motors cars have had wireless OnStar
connections for more than a decade. But the push is intensifying now
that most people have cellphones -and the wireless industry's future
growth depends on it. That means the GSM Mobile World Congress, the
telecommunications industry's largest annual trade show, will be abuzz
with discussion of devices like "smart" meters that report a home's
usage of electricity, natural gas or water back to the utility, and to
your phone.
"You'll see more things that are 'today' things versus
'tomorrow' things at the show," said Glenn Lurie, AT&T's president
of "emerging devices."
AT&T's CEO Randall Stephenson will
speak at the show, which runs Monday through Thursday. He'll be rubbing
shoulders with the CEOs of Deutsche Telekom AG, parent of T-Mobile USA;
Nokia Corp. and Vodafone Group PLC, the British company that owns 45
percent of Verizon Wireless.
Another big theme at the show will be
Near-Field Communications, or NFC. Cellphones are great at
communicating with distant people and websites, but not at connecting to
things in their immediate surroundings. The process of communicating
with a phone that's 3 feet away is the same as if it's 300 miles away.
Now, smartphones are getting new chips that allow them to connect to
similarly equipped phones to transfer videos quickly - a capability
Samsung has featured in some mildly salacious ads.
The chips also
let phones talk directly to card-swipe terminals in stores, which has
set off a race to organize and control the new world of mobile payments.
For the occasion, most of Barcelona's taxi cabs have been outfitted
with terminals that let them accept a "tap" from a phone as a mode of
payment.
The show itself is set to be the biggest since its
founding in 1995. The GSM Association, which organizes the shows,
expects more than 70,000 attendees, and the demand for exhibit space has
forced a move from the historic conference center at the foot of the
Montjuic hill to a larger, more modern venue further from the city
center.
Michael O'Hara, chief marketing officer for the GSMA,
expects the show to inject 300 milion euros, or $400 million, into the
local economy and create 6,500 part-time jobs.
Last year, a
massive protest against government anti-austerity measures closed the
entrance to the conference center for hours. This year, only a minor
disturbance is expected a Wednesday demonstration by phone-company
workers over a local grievance.
Those expecting the hottest new
phones to make their appearance at the show may be disappointed. Phone
makers have moved away from announcing their new phones at trade shows,
preferring instead to host their own events.
"People try to move a little bit out of the noise of the event," O'Hara said.
Research
In Motion Ltd., which is changing its name to BlackBerry, and HTC Corp.
both held events in New York in the last month to launch new
smartphones. Samsung Electronics, the biggest maker of smartphones in
the world, is expected to wait until after the show to reveal the
successor to its flagship phone, the Galaxy S III.