The big one excluded from the tech fairs is the metaverse. Trip to MWC Barcelona

The fate of fairs has probably been sealed for some time, but the aftermath of the pandemic continues to highlight the crisis which, in various forms, is affecting the events taking place all over the world. The 2023 edition of the Mobile World Congress which has been taking place in Barcelona for years. The pavilions for the post-Covid “great comeback” have been open since yesterday. The wounds for the canceled 2020 edition have not yet healed: in 2021 a bizarre summer version was hastily set up while last year the great protagonists, i.e. Asian companies, were missing. This year we have returned to normal, the local newspapers emphasize the attendance and the hotels sold out again (at crazy prices) on the occasion of the first MWC free from the restrictions of the Covid period.

An edition without protagonists and without metaverse

What is missing is an absolute protagonist. In the past years we had 5G, but today there is nothing that emerges from the infinite series of announcements that are repeated one after the other. Yes, the pandemic has changed the way we communicate. Presentations are now made online, perhaps in events far from the confusion of a fair. If Apple continues to avoid these demonstrations, which have never been seen here in Barcelona, ​​even the main competitors have started to make similar choices.

Samsung, for example, continues to anticipate its novelties in the weeks leading up to the MWC, far from Spain, as indeed all the others have done who have preferred to create their own exclusive showcase without crowding the pavilions.

Sure is that none of the big players have chosen the metaverse. Yet there was no better occasion than this to do it. A real contradiction for a sector that constantly calls for it if it is not seen (or almost). It is useless for Zuckerberg to declare that millions of users have begun to move and communicate in these virtual spaces, if other multinationals have not built stimulating experiences for its development. Indeed, those who have shown the first examples in the field – often mixed systems between VR and holograms – continue to confuse potential users even more with solutions that are light years away from expectations. In short, a lot of anticipation for something that still doesn’t show the public anything concrete.

We remain with a single certainty: the metaverse has embarked on an unstoppable journey, above all due to the amount of investments that have been made, but progress is so slow as to be imperceptible. Maybe it will become the protagonist of the next editions but it doesn’t exist today and, for those trying to find their way around the pavilions, the final experience becomes paradoxical.

Tangible news

The Mobile World Congress 2023 in Barcelona, ​​in fact, has so many innovations to try live as there are few new previews. You have to go beyond virtual reality to find something interesting we find it, starting with the latest launch of Xiaomi which – thanks to the new series of Xiaomi 13 and 13 Pro smartphones, equipped with Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 and top cameras – has abandoned the idea of ​​a price list accessible to all, introducing products with prices aimed more at the upper class than at the indistinct mass of consumers. A choice that can be shared in a now saturated sector, in which it is possible to focus on quality as well as quantity.

Waiting to see how the market will react, Honor also used the Catalan showcase to present its Magic Vs foldable smartphone – with an edge-to-edge screen out and a large 7.9-inch folding display when opened – together with the new Magic 5 Pro. Alongside mobile telephony, the fixed network and optical fiber also remain the protagonists: there is no shortage of routers that increasingly focus on Wifi 7 while manufacturers such as AVM try to open up the “free modem” market in our country. Commercial battles at the turn of innovations.

Teledriving and rolling smartphones for the future

There are those who still try to amaze. Motorola has shown an interesting concept of a rollable smartphone that stretches the display from 5 to 6.5 inches. The idea is as brilliant as its usefulness is doubtful.

There are also those who dare even more, making us imagine a transport service in which an electric vehicle – with no people on board! – shows up in front of the house, exactly when we need it, to then be guided to our destination, get off and continue with our commitments. All without worrying about parking, just a convenient and convenient “door-to-door service”. At least this is the concept behind a demonstration of remote driving, called teledriving, which Ericsson, Deutsche Telekom and Vay are presenting to an audience as curious as it is skeptical. However, the road has been traced, including the hybridization of automotive and connectivity exhibitions. Protagonists in each other’s spaces, a form of response to the crisis that could become an opportunity to redesign the entire exhibition sector.

How much desire for nostalgia!

Behind so many innovations, nostalgia is the answer for many. With yet another paradox. In the digital badge edition, most of the exhibitors and insiders decide to embark on endless queues just to have their access ticket printed. Doing so serves no purpose, but leaves tangible proof that the technology here has made it useless. Not surprisingly, one of the most talked about novelties among insiders is a phone with modest features compared to the more ambitious Fautoroni flagships. Yet the Nokia G22, a device that relies entirely on simplicity and the possibility of “self-repair”, made headlines simply with a return to the past that aims to be a response to the “high cost” of repairs in the world of smartphones.

There are other weird daughters these days. If behind the scenes many salespeople say that most telecommunications operators no longer send their employees to the fair to enter into classic B2B agreements, preferring – as if we were a DAD – a virtual tour of the stands via video call, there are also those who trying to involve journalists pseudo-lotteries are being invented that give away headphones in exchange for presence.

Let’s be clear: there is no shortage of reasons to populate the Barcelona Fair every year, but the concept of a large B2B event risks colliding with the new conveniences that technology itself has made available to us. The Mobile World Congress, an event that seems immortal, could become the cause of its own crisis. And this time the pandemic has absolutely nothing to do with it.