The GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona is the ultimate event in the global mobile industry: If you want to meet the global mobile communication leaders - it’s Barcelona and not Davos you have to be
But it’s not only about business. It’s also about fun - if you get into the right party at night. The artist and celebrity “density” at these events was high in the past - but as the mobile industry is developing towards a mobile content and media industry the artists even become part of the congress.
Years ago, when the congress was situated in Cannes, the Congress invited the science fiction author Douglas Adams to get a new perspective on the mobile industry.
But this time they go much much further and invited artists like will.i.am, producer, artist and founder of The Black Eyed Peas to share their view of the mobile music developments. Or the Hollywood legend, founder of the Sundance Institute and Film Festival, Sundance Channel, and the most recent of the brand’s entertainment companies, Sundance Cinemas, Robert Redford who will share his insights of the role of mobile in the short film genre. Or watch the Isabella Rosselini and Jody Shapiro presenting a case study on “Mobile Meets Film”.
So if you are attending the Mobile World Congress on February 13th 2008 in Barcelona - you have to go to the Mobile Backstage event at the National Palace (Palau Nacional).
P.S. For all of you who did not see will.i.am’s 48-hour work yet … until now more than 3 Million visitors watched his Barack-Obama support music video on Youtube yet. Remarkable!
It’s quite interesting to go into the browser / OS marketshare statistics Net Applications is gathering.
Within the last 12 months, the marketshare of Apple Mac OS X powered computers increased from 6.38% in Feb 2007 to 7.57% in Jan 2008 - a growth rate of about 19%. This great news for the Mac community - but what’s really surprising is the significant marketshare of iPhone surfers in the last month. The iPhone was introduced to the US market on June 29th 2007 - and in Jan 2008 it’s internet surfer worldwide market share is 0.13% according to the Net Applications. Focussing only on the US market it’s share is even higher at 0.20%!
It looks like the iPhone really fuels the use of mobile internet.
You probably did not win one of the academy awards this year - and if you did: Congratulations! But if you are experimenting with mobile phone video - you should take a break in the French capital Paris. For the third time the Pocket Film Festival is taking place in the art center Centre Pompidou. The festival is focusing on art films realised with a mobile phone. It’s interesting to see how art is using that new media channel - and this technology is getting part of our culture.
Entry deadline for submissions: March, 30th, 2007.