Mobile World Congress—or MWC is one of our favorite trade shows not just because it takes place in the beautiful city of Barcelona at a seasonally appropriate time. (Not found in cheap cava or tapas) anything No, this show is one of my favorites because it’s one of the easiest to navigate and there’s always a lot of interesting, fun, or just plain crazy technology.
This year, such prizes include a transparent laptop, a bendable cell phone, and a Barbie doll cell phone. Here are the highlights.
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HMD teases Barbie phone with (sort of) rebrand
HMD was supposed to be the return of Nokia’s phones when it made headlines at MWC 2017, but the company quickly lost momentum and the Nokia brand name couldn’t really compete with phones from the likes of Samsung. was obvious. And now Apple. Instead, HMD has focused on its low-cost Android smartphones and its feature phone business for the past few years. MWC announced that 2023 would be the company’s first profitable year, but it is now trying to change that with a rebrand. First of all, the name. It’s based on “Human Mobile Devices” (the full version of that acronym) rather than HMD. This year’s lineup of devices includes HMD phones, the iconic Nokia phone, and even a Barbie foldable phone.
Yes, that’s right. HMD is collaborating with Mattel to release a flip phone featuring Barbie dolls. It’s expected to arrive this summer, is distinctly pink in color, and is being touted as a digital detox device. That’s all we know. The only photo on every phone that was teased was pixelated.
we do What is known about HMD’s other phone is that it will revolve around a system called HMD Fusion. Like Motorola’s Moto Mods and Google’s long-lost Project Ara, a system of modular components that developers can build for smartphones, from extended batteries and barcode scanners to payment terminals and medical devices. I think so. We’ve released a toolkit that developers can use to get started.
HMD is also focused on repairability, and expects half of the devices launched worldwide this year to be repairable. But this summer, the company plans to introduce a system that will significantly reduce the number of steps required to repair cracked screens.
Motorola bends the phone to debut Smart Connect
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Late last year, at Lenovo’s Tech World event, Motorola unveiled a foldable concept phone called Adaptive Display. I had a chance to try it out at MWC. In look and feel he is similar to the Razr foldable phone, but instead of a hinge that closes the phone exactly in half, the whole thing can be bent backwards.