Superfast networks add spice to new products on show at mobile congress

Networks are helping to add pizzazz to new mobile products as the rapid evolution in smartphone and tablet design slows to a trickle.

Apple previewed the iWatch at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Josep Lago / AFP

Networks, whether superfast mobile broadband, Wi Fi or a combination of both, are helping to add pizzazz to new mobile products as the rapid evolution in smartphone and tablet design slows to a trickle.
The world's fastest smartphone, new "phablets" - sized between a phone and tablet - and small tablets optimised to watch video and run multiple applications on 4G mobile networks were making the biggest splash at the Mobile World Congress.
Networks are also enabling millions of other devices, from coffee makers to bicycles and cars to homes, to become "smart".
The American chipmaker Qualcomm, for instance, demonstrated a connected home in which a smartphone can be used to start a coffee maker and speakers burst into sound when you enter the room, thanks to the handset in your pocket.
Such innovations are made possible by AllJoyn, an open-source software framework compatible with mobile operating systems Android, Windows and iOs, that allows devices to speak to each other directly without needing a separate server.
"We are making the internet of everything a seamless blend of the physical and the digital world," said Brian Spencer, an engineer at Qualcomm Innovation Centre.
The US network operator AT&T, meanwhile, is adding your home and your car to your smartphone contacts.
Its Digital Life product allows a user to automate and monitor his or her home remotely, and it has replaced Verizon Communications as mobile partner for General Motors' OnStar connected car service.
Meanwhile, wearable devices are the next big thing to be connected, industry watchers say.
Google revealed on YouTube last week some of the features of Google Glass, a pair of glasses that allows users to see information and record video.
Apple, meanwhile, is experimenting with the design of a smart device similar to a wristwatch made with curved glass, according to a New York Times report.
In Barcelona, many of the wearables were designed to keep tabs on health problems.
A blood sugar monitor was being used by cyclists, with real-time data sent to a Sony Xperia smartphone on the handlebars. Readings can then be sent to doctors using a secure mobile connection.
It will be used by a team of diabetics riding between Brussels and Barcelona next month, said trip organiser Adam Denton.
Most new smartphones and tablets unveiled at the show, however, displayed no departure from the touch-screen format popularised by Apple and Samsung Electronics.
Device maker Huawei set itself apart by emphasising the connection speed of its flagship smartphone, the Ascend P2, while Japan's NEC took a fresh approach to smartphone form with a device offering screens back and front that can be unfolded to make a 5.6 inch-sized tablet.
Olaf Swantee, the chief executive of the British network operator EE, said faster networks were changing how people use their devices and how manufacturers were designing kit.
"Miniaturisation was the big thing a few years ago, but now, with customers able to do more on their screens than ever before, we're seeing device manufacturers maximise screen space, not minimise it," he said at the show.
 
* Reuters