MWC do not need Internet of Things anymore

At last the MWC is going back to its origins. Maybe the almighty GSMA has read some of my previous posts:

• 2015 – “MWC 2015: Everything Connected, Tapas and Jamon”
• 2016 – “GSMA need to think how to reinvent MWC”
• 2017- “MWC- The Great Illusionists Show!”
• 2018 – “MWC18- Trapped in the Groundhog Loop”

5G has been the star this year and one more year I have to say that it still has almost the same number of defenders as detractors. Both positions have been heard this week in Barcelona. I have adopted an easy and not very brave position, I still think that 5G can bring great advances in many sectors such as medicine or transport, but I refuse to think that we will use the 5G for Virtual Reality multi-player games. Too much investment for few use cases useful for society.

In any case, one more year, since I am evangelizing on the Internet of Things (IoT), I went to Barcelona to discover new IoT start-ups and discuss advances and IoT strategies with Operators, Manufacturers, System Integrators presented at this Congress.

The main conclusion at the end of three days of attempts and almost 70,000 steps of my Fitbit tracker, is that the role of the IoT in the MWC has been diluted and where only 2-3 years ago almost all the exhibitors included the word IoT in their stands, many without knowing what it was, today hardly appears in a few. There are no longer models, nor new use cases that attract visitors.

We knew that it was a matter of time before the IoT ceased to be a hot word, but we thought that its effect would be reflected in each solution or product. As happened with the Internet, good symptom because it would mean the ubiquity of things connected in our lives, our businesses and our society.

IoT and Operators

While waiting for 5G, IoT operators are torn between several technologies such as NB-IoT or LTE-M o LPWAN networks. The LoRA alliance had a booth in Hall 8 (the Hall of the poors, I call this Hall). SigFox did not even attend this year, further increasing the rumours among the attendees of the possible precarious situation of the French Operator.

Analysts should revise their estimates downwards based on data from new connections announced by Vodafone or Telefonica this year.

I agree with Allen Proithis “I feel that the lack of emphasis on IoT reflects the struggle of mobile operators to monetize IoT outside of connections, especially at the SaaS or data level.”

Winner MWC2019 – Deutsche Telekom – IoT Solution Optimizer          

IoT and Network Infrastructure Vendors

This section is reserved for a few players: Ericsson, Huawei and Nokia share most of the pie about the network infrastructure to Operators. Under the suspicions of Huawei security, the doubts of the Operators in the election of their 5G vendor can delay the deployments in Europe. The Americans and the Chinese have already decided.

Only Huawei granted me a meeting with a VP friend, I tried several times with Nokia and I did not try this year with Ericsson, the latter I have already heard his strategy three times in the last year.

Nokia has taken advantage in terms of its connectivity offer with Nokia Wing, the ecosystem and the use cases (somewhat more advanced than those presented last year).

Winner MWC2019 – Nokia – Nokia Wing

IoT and IT Technology Vendors

Giants like Microsoft has preferred to show Hololens and has left a ridiculous space for IoT with a couple of partners. Other IT giants such as Dell-EMC-VMware, SAP, Cisco, Oracle, SAS or SAG-Cumulocity have not presented anything new.

Regarding System Integrators, they are not even expected at this fair in regard to IoT.

Neither the Cloud, nor the Edge IIoT, nor the IoT Platforms, nor the IoT applications seem to find new ideas that attract the interest of veterans and novices. Where are the millions of dollars they say they are spending on IoT going?

Winner MWC2019 – Desert

IoT and Countries

Finding an IoT gem among the tiny cubicles of the countries stands is almost like finding a needle in a haystack. There is hardly any order or concert to locate dozens of small companies that use this Congress to make visible to thousands of visitors. The country’s umbrella allows them to be here but attracting an interested public to its cubicle is a titanic and miraculous task, between so much noise and variety.

I used to talk every year with IoT companies with which I have maintained relationship from Israel, UK, Sweden, Canada or France. However, this year my surprise was to find an interesting company in the pavilion of Belgium. Yes, they develop another IoT platform. But I liked what they have achieved with Orange. They are my winner this year.

Special mention to the Colombia pavilion and my friend Edgar Salas Edgar Salas for their kindness.

Winner MWC2019 – AllThingsTalk

IoT and Startups

I could not go to the 4YFN, but I went to IoT Stars. Great work is doing my friend Marc Pous and his friends who come as a jury year after year. Good time to have a beer with colleagues, share impressions of the IoT year and talk about new ideas to accelerate this market once and for all.

In my opinion there was no great level. I still notice a lack of Industrial IoT start-ups. Most ideas are “deja vue” applications for Consumer IoT that remind me of the post-years of the Internet boom. Much remains to be done here. It will take time for Universities to train innovators and entrepreneurs of IoT.

Winner MWC2019 – Desert

Note: The IoT Stars jury awarded two prizes

Key Takeaway:

It does not matter that this Congress is as soporific as the Oscars ceremony. For some strange reason I keep coming every year. Although after the fiasco of 2019 with my expectations set to find progress and opportunities in IoT I think I will reduce my stay to two days in 2020.

It has become clear that the MWC no longer needs the IoT to attract visitors and exhibitors and companies and specialists of IoT prefer another fair as the Embedded World that is celebrated in the same week.