LD at 3GSM

Spent a few days out in Barcelona catching up on the latest in mobile technologies, ranging from watching live TV to interactive pornchat on your cell phone (just what we’ve all been waiting for).  I took a look at some of the latest and greatest phones, most of which seem to be fairly Moto-inspired, and rest assured, there are a decent amount of cool new cell phones that will never, ever see the light of day in the US!

The show was held at the Fira de Barcelona, a much better-looking place than the Vegas Convention Center, and divided into several different halls.  Hall 1 had Microsoft, Intel, Docomo, as well as your typical host of smaller companies.  In Hall 2 I found some providers, such as Telefonica Spain (branded Movistar), and a lot of content and services companies.  Hall 3 did not exist, and Halls 4 and 5 were for corporate/internal use.  Couldn’t find Halls 6 or 7 anywhere, but Hall 8 had Moto, Nortel, and all the other manufacturers.  Despite missing three halls, the show was large enough to occupy several days worth of wandering.

This was my first time attending the show, which used to be held in Cannes, France, but Barcelona “won” it starting this year.  Moving a tradeshow is a fairly big deal, apparently big enough to warrant a welcome by the King and Queen of Spain (I couldn’t help walking around humming “I’ve stood here before inside the pouring rain, with the world turning circles running ’round my brain…”

3GSM also featured your typical share of booth babes, but the ones that drew the most attention were at a company called Cboss.  Every 60 minutes a quick explanation of the company was given (no idea what they do still) then these 6 hypo-anorexic girls did a little dance. 

All-in-all, it was an interesting show, although I have to say I was a little disappointed at the lack of significantly interesting new phones.  I’ll post some seperate entries with specific devices or services I saw in the next couple of days.