(MWC 2010) Smartphone softwares, Android phones to dominate this year's mobile show

By Lee Youkyung
BARCELONA, Spain, Feb. 15 (Yonhap) -- This year's Mobile World Congress opens
Monday in Barcelona with more than 1,300 companies in attendance to showcase
their latest products and technologies, as mobile software draws increased
attention amid close competition in the fast-paced sector.

The mobile industry's largest trade show, which will run through Thursday, will
feature the latest products and technologies not only of traditional handset
manufacturers such as Nokia Corp. and Samsung Electronics Co. but also Web search
engine operators, computer software makers and advertisers, none of which are
players conventionally associated with the mobile industry.
As more users shift away from traditional desktop computers and turn instead to
mobile devices for Web surfing and computing, industry watchers expect the 2010
MWC to highlight the mobile industry's mounting significance for other sectors
and to offer a preview of the increasingly fierce battle for supremacy in the
mobile market.
With computing going more and more mobile, it is mobile software that
increasingly matters and which will take the spotlight at the 2010 MWC. At least
two new mobile operating systems, now the key differentiators in smartphones, are
slated to be announced during the show by companies whose forte were formerly
thought to lie in areas other than mobile software making.
South Korea's Samsung, the world's No. 2 maker of mobile handsets finally
unveiled its first Bada-powered smartphone on the eve of the MWC's official
opening.
Samsung announced its mobile operating system Bada last year, declaring it will
begin to focus as much on mobile software as mobile hardware. Samsung's
Bada-backed phone named Wave will give the industry a chance to evaluate whether
Samsung can claim a strong footing in the smartphone segment to complement its
leading position in the low-end handset industry.
Microsoft Corp., the U.S. computer software giant desperate to stay relevant in
the mobile industry, is also expected to disclose a new version of its mobile
operating system on Monday afternoon, widely rumored to be Windows Phone 7. As
many handset makers turned away from Microsoft's Windows Mobile 6, the response
to its new software is likely to determine how much it could win back those
handset makers that have converted to Android, the mobile operating system
created by Microsoft's biggest rival, Google Inc.
Industry watchers are also excited to see a slew of new handset models based on
Google's Android system.
"A lot of handsets with Android system will be announced," said Denny Kim, an
analyst at Eugene Securities based in Seoul. "How far Android market could expand
would be one of the big issues at the show."
Google, the U.S. search engine giant suddenly so crucial in the mobile industry,
saw its Android system gaining ground at the expense of other smartphone
operating system such as Windows Mobile. But garnering attention from handset
makers is not enough to gain a larger share in the smartphone market, and new
Android devices revealed at MWC will give a preview of Android market's future.
There are of course other reasons that industry watchers are keenly awaiting new
products from traditional phone makers at the mobile show.
"I expect demand for low-priced smartphones to rise very rapidly," Kim Do-han, an
analyst at Samsung Securities in South Korea's capital city, said of smartphones
under US$200. "I'm interested in seeing who will lead this new mid-to-low end
smartphone segment. Could South Korean handset makers take the lead here or will
they be overtaken by other smartphone makers like Apple?"
The MWC will show how far traditional feature phone makers, especially South
Korean handset makers with advanced technology in hardware, have been adjusting
themselves as the mobile industry places increasing emphasis on mobile software.

As computing goes rapidly mobile and competition from non-device makers to crowd
the market ever than before, device makers are pressured to put up a good show in
Spain.
ylee@yna.co.kr
(END)

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