Undermining expectations

20.02.2009
Whatever your expectations, this year's Mobile World Congress -- the premier showcase for the global cellular industry -- was noteworthy for undermining them.

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One thing did emerge with more clarity: an ever-more sophisticated integration of mobile devices and users with online data, applications and services.

, the Google-fueled open source operating system expected to reshape the mobile market, was largely missing in action. Only a couple of Android phones were announced at the Barcelona, Spain event, which organizers said was expected to draw 50,000 attendees.

Windows Mobile, the proprietary OS expected (or hoped by some) to be doomed to irrelevance, was the operating system of choice for several high-profile smartphone introductions that supported either the current 6.1 or newly announced 6.5 release.

People expected more attempts at "iPhone Killers." Instead, the phone named best of show was an anti-iPhone: the low-cost INQ 1 Social Mobile, actually unveiled last November, boasts a UI integrated with Web applications and services.