MWC 2015 In Pictures

MWC 2015 officially closed its doors on 5 March, but coverage from the industry’s largest yearly event is likely to continue into the next week. With over 93,000 attendees this year, MWC 2015 proved to be the most successful MWC yet. But for those on the other side of the world, it may be a little difficult to picture just how massive this event really is.

According to event organisers GSMA, MWC 2015 housed over 2,000 exhibiting companies over 100,000 square meters of exhibition and hospitality space. There were over 3,800 international media and industry analysts in attendance – as any travel agency will tell you, this is the only time all hotels in Barcelona are fully booked. This is, quite simply, the single most important industry event to be in.

Naturally, we weren’t the only Malaysians in Barcelona this week. MWC 2015 saw a surprisingly large amount of Malaysian media covering the event, from broadcast media such as TV3 to mobile blogs Soyacincau.com and Amanz.my. Behind the scenes, high-ranking officials from the major telcos in Malaysia were engaged in extensive discussions for future collaborations. Even the Malaysian Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC) had a booth, as did Green Packet Berhad.

Before I bore you with even more statistics, here are pictures that were taken during the four-day event, as we attempt to capture just what it’s like to be physically at the Fira Gran Via in Barcelona to be some of the first in the world to see the products that will shape the industry over the course of the year.

It is just over 8am on the first day of MWC 2015. This the how the nearest train station looks like.

Hall 3 was home to the biggest brands around. Samsung, LG, Lenovo, Sony, Microsoft and Huawei were among the main exhibitors located here. To the right of the image, attendees stood transfixed watching the repeat broadcast of the Samsung Galaxy Unpacked 2015 event held the night before.

The Media Village was where the hordes of global members of the media congregate to file their stories and videos. There are three such media rooms, each as large as this one, housing countless tables with LAN cables for high-speed Internet access. Funny story: on the third day some people began complaining that the media rooms were starting to stink of unshowered bodies.

Android made its presence known this year, offering attendees the chance to create their own Android avatars and have them printed onto t-shirts and canvas bags for free.

Android also released 124 unique Android pins designed by all Android partners present at MWC 2015, with pamphlets showing attendees where each of these pins can be found. They were either freely given by some exhibitors, while others required a simple task to be completed before the pins were given.

Naturally, this created a short-lived but frantic sub-culture within the event halls as attendees scrambled to complete the full set, with attendees actively trading in front of the Android booth on the final day of the exhibition. CNET has a report on this phenomenon.

A DJ using Microsoft’s Surface Pro 3 to play hip, refreshing tunes at the company’s booth – surprisingly reminiscent of the company’s profile today.

Everybody loves taking a dig at Apple…

...but when have you seen a company taking a dig at companies who copy Apple?

This lady has been on the treadmill since Day 1.

Huawei Wear =/= Android Wear.

Timely reminder from Kaspersky.

Intel’s smart helmet, expertly presented.

Some rare products were also on display at MWC 2015, including the high-end LG Fx0 smartphone, running on Firefox OS.

Why hasn’t anyone designed a smartwatch as thin as the ASUS ZenWatch?

Jolla’s new tablet, featuring the very impressive Sailfish 2.0 mobile operating system.

The Saygus V2 (pronounced as V Squared) has a rear that’s inspired by the Chevy Camaro, according to Saygus.

HTC’s turned its odd-looking Re camera into something more familiar and exceptionally adorable.

Something not found on the show floors: HTC’s Vive VR headset.

Sony’s SmartEyeglass Attach! (exclamation mark is part of the product name). The little metal strip houses an OLED display that provides contextual information based on what the user is doing. Think heads-up display from first-person shooter games, and that’s where Sony aims to be at.

One more iPhone clone from China.

Yes, there is apparently a China-based company (where else?) that’s named after Iron Man himself. At the booth were cheap-looking VR headsets, cheap-looking glasses-free 3D tablets, and plenty of phone cases featuring licensed movie characters. The booth is located opposite to Pierre Cardin’s.

MWC after hours. While the exhibition closes at 7pm, the Media Village only closes at 9pm, allowing us to view the vast show floor in a totally different way.