The big names of the mobile world occupied vast stands at MWC in Barcelona – but some of the most interesting and innovative products, applications and technologies came from start-ups.
Smartphone.biz-news has pulled together some of the enterprising newbies that are likely to make a big impact in the future, including video interviews and photos.
Smartphone News
Truphone has unveiled its plans for a single-SIM, multi-country mobile service that will enable users to make calls in supported countries at local rates.
The mobile communications company says a key aim of the Local Anywhere service is to eliminate the hassle of switching SIM cards or the expense of often-exorbitant roaming charges when callers use their handsets on foreign trips, according to voip.biz-news.
French software developer MTag has just launched its cutting edge mobile identification solution MEEPASS at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
The secure ID tag works on any mobile phone and uses a 2D barcode that verifies a user’s identity without the need for the handset to be network connected.
For a start-up like Wizi having Google launch a competing product might seem like the kiss of death. Not so with the Lisbon, Portugal-based developers who have welcomed the launch of Google’s Latitude as a way of bringing attention to their instant location sharing application. The free mobile application allows you to share your location instantly by e-mail or SMS.
Advanced Receiver Technologies (ART) has launched interference cancellation technology which has the potential to dramatically improve 3G call connectivity and mobile broadband download rates.
Crucially, the Texas-based company says the solution doesn’t require additional network investment but will allow twice as many users to connect in the same 3G coverage area.
It can do all this while maintaining broadband connectivity throughout the entire cell – including tripling data transfer speeds at cell edge.
Irish start-up Dial2Do are creating quite a stir at this year’s Mobile World Congress.
The Dublin-based company lets you do various tasks on your mobile simply by calling a number and speaking.
So you can send email or text messages, record reminders, post updates to Twitter or Jaiku stream or even listen to internet content – all while driving your car.
Intivation today launched the world’s first low-cost solar-powered mobile phone.
The Dutch company uses an innovative converter that takes 0.5v from a solar cell and steps it up to the 3.7v needed for any lithium ion mobile phone battery.
This year’s Mobile World Congress is now underway and already there has been a flurry of announcements and launches from some of the big names lining up in Barcelona.
Vodafone has unveiled a raft of new mobiles, including its first own-branded consumer GPS phone – the Vodafone 835.
It was interesting to hear Eitan Linker, CEO of emoze, talk about his company’s efforts to introduce the mass market to mobile push email at the Showstopper event on the eve of Mobile World Congress 2009.
Emoze’s free software enables users to configure multiple mobile email accounts – and send and receive emails from corporate, personal and family accounts all on the same mobile.
Bitstream is launching its new BOLT mobile browser today with the claim that it is the fastest on the market.
Sampo Kaasila, VP of R&D at Bitstream told smartphone.biz-news, that the new browser was "25-50 per cent faster" than competitor Opera.
Speaking at Showstoppers on the eve of Mobile World Congress 2009 in Barcelona he said this was backed up by tests carried out in India.