Mobile World opens in Barcelona

The world's biggest mobile phone event opened today in Barcelona, where the industry will unveil its latest innovations that it hopes will drive demand through the global economic downturn, reports iafrica.com.

The Mobile World Congress, which runs from Monday to Thursday, will bring together 60 000 industry insiders, from 1 200 companies, according to the organiser, the GSM Association.

All the major network operators, such as Vodafone, MTN and China Mobile, will be present, as well as handset makers like Nokia and Samsung. Microsoft, Yahoo and a host of start-ups looking to tout their new products will also attend.

Mobile phone maker Sony Ericsson unveiled 8MP and 12MP camera phones at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, says Time of India.

The company also unveiled an unlimited movie download service for mobile phones.

Sony Ericsson's 8MP W995 Walkman phone features include A-GPS, WiFi and a 2.6-inch QVGA scratch-resistant display. It offers DLNA support, 118MB of onboard storage and a memory stick M2 slot.

LG Electronics and Intel will collaborate around mobile Internet devices (MIDs) based on Intel's next-generation MID hardware platform, codenamed “Moorestown”, and Linux-based Moblin v2.0 software platform, says YTN.

The LG device is expected to be one of the first Moorestown designs to market.

LG and Intel's common goal is to unleash rich Internet experiences across a range of mobile devices, while delivering the functionality of today's high-end smartphones.

Consumer demand for data services on mobile phones, such as accessing e-mail or browsing the Web on the go, is rising, despite the global economic downturn, a survey released today found, reports Reuters.

The survey of 50 000 consumers in Britain, France, Italy, Germany, Spain and the US found that more than half of those who already use mobile data expect to use it more often in the next two years.

"More significantly, according to the research, more than a quarter of the millions of consumers who do not use mobile data services today intend to start using them shortly," said Jesse Goranson, of The Nielsen Company, which carried out the survey.