John Whelan is Off Portal and Off Net!

Nothing new under the Sun at 3GSM Barcelona

Just returned after a hectic few days at the Alatto stand at 3GSM Congress in Barcelona . This year I felt there was nothing new that really had that "WOW" factor. Usually there is some offering or announcement that is really exciting but this year ... nada.

OK the announcement that Skype will be available on Three handsets is a little earlier than expected. Also interesting to see Microsoft announce the acquisition of Motionbridge. I believe more US based mobile search outfits will be forced to look to Europe for useful IP and traction in this area. What about Tribes then Google ;-).

BTW: Check out my new tagline for Tribes: "Discovery without Search" geddit?

I will leave you today with a few pictures from the event. Firstly the alatto stand at the Irish pavilion.



The event was so big this year (after been squeezed into Cannes for many years) that many of the big companies had several stands in different halls. Nokia had so many stands that some were dedicated to specific products. For example see below Nokia radio stand. This is kinda frustrating for us in alatto as we touted the idea of mobile radio client on handset several years ago. We even built a prototype running on flash on a Symbian handset. The client is synced with the radio station and provides information about the song being played and a link to buy the ringtone or full track. ah well.



Last but not least a snapshot of the alatto drinks in the Michael Collins Pub beside the Gaudi Cathedral. Is Sean O'Sullivan everywhere or is he just stalking me?

posted by alatto @ 4:23 PM