Google's Android steps out of Apple's shadow

The growing popularity of smartphones was a dominant feature at the Mobile World Congress

THERE WAS a different atmosphere around the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this year.

In 2010, the focus was very much on co-operation and creating a new wholesale applications community that would help manufacturers regain ground in the war for market share. The Wholesale Application Community was announced, while companies such as Intel and Nokia announced partnerships to create open-source platforms.

Since then, things have changed. Google’s operating system Android has matured and increased in popularity.

The new reality had already been signalled clearly when Nokia and Microsoft said they had agreed a deal that would see Nokia adopt Windows Phone 7 as its primary smartphone platform, ousting Symbian.

The main question being asked was, why not Android? The mobile maker’s chief executive Stephen Elop said the company had rejected Google as a possible platform, saying it could have created a duopoly.

“If we were to combine the current market share of Android with the market share that Nokia could deliver to Android over the next couple of years, it’s a very large number,” he said. The decision to go with Windows Phone created a “three-horse race”.

While it could be next year before we see any fruit of the partnership between Nokia and Microsoft, speculation about how the deal would work was rife at the congress. Elop and Microsoft boss Steve Ballmer were both keen to point out the benefits of the partnership for both: Nokia gets a leg-up in the US market, Microsoft gets the benefit of Nokia’s services such as Ovi maps and the Ovi Store, hardware capabilities and the “swing factor” that will bring more market share to Microsoft.

“Nokia has placed a very important strategic bet on Microsoft and Microsoft has placed a very important strategic bet on Nokia. And that is one of the critical reasons why we will both succeed together,” Elop said.

The partnership however could be facing an uphill battle. Magnus Jern, chief executive of mobile software house Golden Gekko said: “Most developers are doing Android and Apple; they don’t want to do anything else, even if they are paid for it. It’s going to be very, very difficult for the others.”

There were also questions about the future of Symbian and Meego, the open-source system that evolved from a partnership between Intel and Noki announced last year. Nokia said it had no plans to abandon either, but it referred to Meego as “an opportunity to learn”.

Intel chief executive Paul Otellini made it clear the company was moving ahead with Meego, demonstrating products on netbooks at its stand.

At the congress, though, Android was definitely the dominant system. Despite rumours of a new low-cost iPhone, the spectre of Apple that had hung over the show in 2010 was less evident this year, with the focus on the new hardware and software being developed for alternative systems.

During his keynote address on Tuesday, Google’s executive chairman Eric Schmidt outlined some impressive statistics. “Who would have thought a few years ago that we would end up with more than 300,000 activations per day, and that number is growing very fast, and more than 170 compatible Android devices, 27 OEMS, 169 carriers and 69 countries?”

Android has more than 150,000 applications in its app store, leading Schmidt to describe it as the fastest-growing mobile platform in the world.

Android, it seemed, was everywhere. Companies showed applications that would work with the platform, with Sonos unveiling its Android app for its streaming music system which allows you to control your entire household music system – provided it’s Sonos – from your handset, including hardware controls such as volume.

“Mobile World Congress has merely confirmed that Android is rampant in the mobile industry,” said Ben Wood, lead analyst at UK- based telecoms research firm CCS Insight. “The whole show is a sea of green robots.”

If Android was the main operating system, tablets were the latest device. Like the Consumer Electronics Show last month, you could barely move for the touch-enabled devices.

After Samsung unveiled its tablet, the Honeycomb-based Tab 10.1, Acer showed off its Iconia Tab A500, which runs on the same operating system. While LG opted for a 3D-enabled tablet in its Optimus Pad to set it apart from the crowd, HTC decided to make its 7-inch Flyer tablet stylus-enabled, so you can take notes and record audio at the same time.

The conference also showcased HP’s WebOS Touch Pad offers users a 9.7-inch screen and a slick multi-tasking system. Research in Motion also added to its BlackBerry line-up, revealing two new Playbooks.

There’s a tablet for Toshiba, as yet unnamed. With media in mind, its offering comes with a HDMI output and a 16:10 aspect ratio display. It runs on Android Honeycomb, has a Tegra 2 dual core processor and allows users to swap batteries – something devices such as the iPad have left out of their design.

There were fewer outlandish gadgets than usual and, perhaps reflecting the continued growth in the popularity of smartphones, software applications featured prominently. Israeli firm Conduit showed off a platform that allows people without technical abilities to create applications easily from their content. The key hook with Conduit is that it covers many different mobile platforms, can be changed easily and it can be managed from a single location.

Making its pitch that content was the key to winning over consumers, Yahoo pushed its latest product Livestand, a digital newsstand to bring personalised content for users. News, entertainment and local information are all part of Livestand’s remit; according to Yahoo, the more you use it, “the more it gets to know you”.

With chief executive Carol Bartz hammering home the notion of relevant content and declaring that “noisy content is yesterday’s internet”, it is clear where Yahoo’s focus has fixed.

“Content and context is the sweet spot for Yahoo,” she said.

– (Additional reporting: Reuters)