MWC 2011 inter-galactic wrap up

Sure. The show was massive, 50,000 phone nerds roaming around. It had all the things you have come to expect from Mobile World Congress – daytime cocktail receptions, night time cocktail receptions, late night parties and generally more networking than ever before. The biggest talking points of MWC 2011 was which parties were where and when, and all the muggings that took place nightly.

We decided to do a quick wrap up on what we think should have been addressed better at MWC along side the over-present and over-covered Android news. Here are our highlights from what we hope will be the last MWC in Barcelona, ever:

• Femto cells make it back into the limelight. Not sure why this isn’t bigger news, but in the end it should be. Network Norway, Orange and A T &T are high on them with research and roll=out plans underway, but Germany’s T-Mobile remains ambivalent.
• Portable fuel cell chargers from MyFc. Last year, MyFC was in attendance in the Swedish Pavilion to talk about their fuel cells for mobile devices and other consumer electronic devices. This year, they have a commercial product, PowerTrekk, that is ready for the market which is great news for the growing clean tech and renewable energy movement within the mobile market.
  • According to their charismatic CEO, Björn Westerholm, he claims that PowerTrekk has a competitive edge over traditional portable chargers because fuel cell power is charging and generated immediately and isn’t impacted by weather or the position of the sun like it is for solar panels. Compared to battery powered travel chargers, PowerTrekk offers reliable charging as the fuel packs do not deplete as batteries do.
    
  • Even though MyFC is way out in front here, there are others. Signa Chemistry says it has created a special fuel for mobile chargers that’s made out of sodium and silicon. Anyway you slice it, the industry should be looking to renewable energies to power these devices rather than continue down the path of resource consumption and waste.
• Mobile Health - this was in a small Pavilion in Hall 7 which was almost totally overlooked. A shame really because mobile health is going to be one of the ways that we use our phones to enhance our lives.
  • Companies such as AlcoSystems, have created a mobile device-connected alcometer that measures alcohol content to enable people to keep a balance between an active life and alcohol consumption. They are using BlueTooth to connect the device to your mobile, which in our opinion is the best use of BlueTooth over social interaction.
  • One rather overlooked piece of news from MWC was Vodafone’s announcement about its alliance with the UN & the mHealth Alliance on a new initiative will assess potential ways of connecting indigenous communities in remote areas of Brazil with health information, such as vaccination scheduling and maternal health guidelines.
• NFC (Near Field Communication) phones – for regular people this means secure mobile payments using your smartphone. Pretty much every device and operator claim they are on it — Blackberry, Orange, LG, etc., and I guess this means that finally there is some consumer trust or that we are all just getting lazier and lazier or maybe we just want things to be a bit easier with the chores in our lives and mobile payments via our phones just make life a little bit simpler. And, on that note, here is a list of all NFC phones you can buy today.
• Barcelona is not a good city for MWC anymore — just about everyone we know got mugged or had an attempted mugging. Move the show to a city where you feel safe walking around at 23:30 and for Barcelona that is not even late. Please move the show GSMA.
• Waterproof. How come it has taken this long to come up with this? Very cool stuff, let’s get this waterproof party started. Krussell had a waterproof phone case, Fujitisu has waterproof  technology it can put into smartphones, hurry up please.
• Mobile behind the scenes just got sexy. Ok follow me here. Traffic goes up as more and more folks (like billions) use mobile networks and the cost goes up for mobile operators. They gotta keep up with the demand but they also need to make money. Simple. Two companies, from Sweden, are addressing these issues, Teligent and Birdstep. Teligent says it wants to “move the power” to the subscriber so that mobile operators can boost their revenues and do away with that pesky churn (if someone can resolve churn, there would be nothing to write about). Birdstep is focused on data off load and maximizing the switch between 3G and wifi networks. They have a unique approach via EasyConnect 3.1 for operators and by also offering consumers a widget/app-like view to monitor their usage.
• The country Pavilions are massively under reported. I mean if you want to see innovation at a uh, glocal level..then you should be watching what goes on in those pavilions – Spain, Germany, Ireland, Sweden (28 exhibiting companies ranging from mHealth to LTE to renewable energy and infrastructure), Israeli – amazing stuff and most of those companies in the Pavilions have partnerships with big operators or device guys that enable them to roll out their products and services. Don’t over look the small guys, there is a lot going on in those Pavilions.
• Mobile marketing. The coolest mobile marketing company at the show was not at the show but was roaming around the show – aFrogleap out of the Netherlands. Even though their website is in Dutch (it should also be in English), the team there is doing some innovative things in terms of concept and development for mobile web and applications.  The company was founded by Naos Wilbrink and Bart Fussell who have an uncanny vision for the future of mobile and web apps and are creating some interesting apps for the big boys like CapGemini and ABN Ambro. You can follow them both on Twitter: Naos @Sprize and Bart @bartfuzzle.

– JH

Related articles

• PowerTrekk Portable Fuel Cell Charger Provides Instant Power Just By Adding Water (mydigitallife.info)
• PowerTrekk fuel cell charger allows for power on the go (gizmag.com)
• MWC Day 1 Wrap-up (reviews.cnet.com)
• MWC 2011 Wrap-Up (slashgear.com)
• High and lows from Mobile World Congress (reviews.cnet.com)

Tags: afrogleap, Alcosystems, Android, Bart Fussel, Birdstep, Bjorn Westerholm, Bluetooth, Easy Connect, Fuel cell, fuel cells, Fujitisu, Glocal, Hydrogen, Krussell, mobile marketing, Mobile World Congress, MyFC, Naos Wilbrink, Near Field Communication, Network Norway, PowerTrekk, Signa Chemistry, Sweden Pavilion, Swedish Pavilion, Swedish Trade Council, T-Mobile, Teligent, vodafone, Waterrpoof

Respect the Sun: Tattletech Hot Seat with Jan Schelling

So, the sun.

It keeps us warm, grows our crops, burns our skin, bleaches our hair and it also heats our homes, powers our computers and powers our cars. But the future is in solar and other renewable energies. We got super lucky and had access to one of THE leading solar experts around – Jan Schelling, who currently gives guidance to Hyrdo’s solar direction and despite his PhD, he actually boils the market down for us. You can follow his solar updates on Twitter @janschelling.

Tattletech: What’s the deal with solar (or PV) these days — can you describe the challenges in manufacturing solar panels and how the cost is currently being reduced due to new production methods?

JS: The challenge the PV industry is facing these days is to cut costs in line with reductions in financial support schemes around the world to maintain profitability for both the solar industry itself and investors in PV systems. Some years down the road, the solar industry will have to live without government subsidies in form of grants, investment tax credits, and feed-in tariffs and compete directly against more polluting sources of energy.

There are two main pathways to reduce cost: larger-scale manufacturing and technology innovation. The solar industry will have to do both. The three main technology routes are higher efficency of the solar cells (more power per area), faster processing (higher output per factory) and the use of less or less expensive materials. Tomorrow’s winners will have to succeed in all of these areas.

TT: Is it true that the earth’s supply of silicon suitable for solar is running out ? If so, how much is left?

JS: Silicon itself is not a scarce resource. If someone talks about a shortage of silicon, they mean the highly purified kind, which until five years ago only a handful of companies were able to produce. The same material that is used for computer chips. Silicon as a raw material is the second most abundant material in the Earth’s crust.

Think ‘sand’ which is essentially silicon oxide. There have been and will be periods during which highly purified silicon is in short supply but based on market demand, the silicon industry will increase its capacity and fill the gap in due time.

TT: Why are emerging markets ahead of the game when it comes to solar?

JS: Emerging markets are not necessarily ahead of the game, but solar provides a great opportunity. Well proven turn-key manufacturing plants for PV modules are now available. This allows emerging countries to generate their own solar panels and produce clean power. Similar to the adaption of mobile phones before major investment in land-based telephone systems where made, emerging economies can prepare their power grid for distributed rather than central generation, thus accommodating for a high penetration of intermittent renewable energy sources.

TT: What interested you first in the solar industry – I mean why did you throw your PhD brain around this ecosystem?

JS: Solar energy is the present and the future. Unlike many other sources of energy that are either here now, but gone tomorrow or have and always will be “only 20 more years of research away from commercialization” (fusion, hydrogen) — solar energy finds many great uses already today and it is the only source of energy that is abundant enough to meet the energy needs of an ever growing human population.

For someone who is impatient and gets bored easily, the solar industry is a great place to be in. Things happen and they happen fast. You don’t need to wait for a lifetime to see if your ideas and predictions were right. A year or two is normally enough. Solar energy is also a very interesting mix of technology development and global market dynamics with almost unlimited demand. And on top of all this, it feels good to help save the world.

TT: Why should corporations or municipalities turn to solar instead of wind or other renewable energy sources?

JS: I wouldn’t say corporations or municipalities should turn their back on other renewable energy sources. There are locations that are very favourable for wind, biomass, hydro, geothermal, wave or tidal energy and we should use what is available without putting too much stress on the local eco-systems. Solar energy can be used almost everywhere for power production, heating or even cooling and roofs of buildings are a great place to start. We don’t consume more land and the energy is produced where it is needed.

An investment in solar energy is a great long-term investment: While requiring a significant up-front investment, solar installations provide virtually operating and maintenance-free energy for decades and safeguard against rising energy costs.

TT: Have you seen the movie, Sunshine, where the sun burns out in the near future? What’s the ETA on that?

[note that some PhD's miss TT's misguided attempts at humour]

JS: I must admit I have not seen the movie Sunshine, but I think there are more
pressing issues than worrying about the sun burning out any time soon. The sun is a pretty big ball of gas in which hydrogen is turned into helium by nuclear fusion, thus releasing large amounts of heat. This process is gradually accelerating and will eventually increase the temperature of the Earth so much that all water will evaporate and life will cease to exist. However, it is estimated that this will not happen until 1 billion years from now and that’s pretty long-term on almost any scale.

– JH

Related articles

• Suntech Power Stock Shines With 25% Upside (blogs.forbes.com)
• Ikea Continues Solar Push (solarfeeds.com)
• Don’t Stay Out Past $14.40 With SunPower (blogs.forbes.com)
• Can Renewables Power the World in Under 4 Decades? (solarfeeds.com)
• Can the U.S. Government Help Domestic Solar Companies Compete? (scientificamerican.com)
• Meeting MENA’s energy needs: Has the solar boom begun? (renewableenergyworld.com)

Tags: Earth, Energy, Energy development, Hydro, Jan Schelling, Jennifer Hicks, PV, Renewable, Renewable energy, Solar, Solar power, Sunshine, Tattletech