Presentation of the new Xiaomi 13 Series smartphone at the Mobile World Show (MWC), on February 26, 2023 in Barcelona, Spain (AFP / Pau BARRENA)
Gathered at the Mobile World Fair (MWC) in Barcelona, ”tech” professionals promised Monday a “tsunami of innovation”, at a time when difficulties are accumulating for the sector, between smartphone sales at half mast and waves of layoffs.
“The past year has not been easy”, recognized José Maria Alvarez-Pallete, CEO of the Telefonica group and President of the World Association of Telecom Operators (GSMA), opening the debates of this annual high mass of telecommunications and new technologies.
“I think we are at the door of a new era” which will “require a radical evolution” in the face of the difficulties facing the sector, he added, saying he was nevertheless optimistic for the telecoms industry. , marked by a “tsunami of innovation”.
According to the specialized agency IDC, global smartphone sales fell 11.3% last year, to 1.21 billion units, the “lowest number since 2013”. And the outlook remains gloomy for 2023, with a further 4% decline expected for phones, tablets and computers according to Gartner.
The global smartphone market ( AFP / )
“The sector is going through a complicated moment,” admitted to AFP Thomas Husson, an analyst at Forrester, referring to the climate of uncertainty born of the war in Ukraine, which has boosted inflation and eroded the purchasing power of consumers. households, but also more structural factors.
“In certain regions such as Western Europe, the individual equipment rate is around 90%: we are therefore in mature markets”, he detailed.
– 80,000 visitors –
Faced with these difficulties – aggravated by the waves of job cuts announced in recent weeks by “tech” giants such as Alphabet, Microsoft and Ericsson – the Barcelona show intends to highlight its capacity for resilience.
A man takes a selfie during the presentation of new Xiaomi smartphones at the Mobile World Show (MWC), on February 26, 2023 in Barcelona, Spain (AFP / Pau BARRENA)
The objective for the professionals present is to see how best to “get through” “this difficult period”, by projecting themselves on “the inevitable return to growth” and the progress linked to “innovation”, explained Ben Wood. , from CCS Insight.
According to the GSMA, an organization bringing together nearly 750 manufacturers and telecom operators and which organizes the show, 80,000 professionals and 2,000 companies are taking part in the MWC, whose eight pavilions are occupied for the first time since the pandemic.
This attendance remains far from the record of 2019, where nearly 110,000 people made the trip, but is higher by a third than the 60,000 visitors of the 2022 edition, affected by the persistence of restrictions linked to Covid-19.
“We are on the way” to a return to normal, insisted the executive director of GSMA, John Hoffman, attributing this dynamic to the strong comeback of Chinese groups after the reopening of the borders announced at the end of December by Beijing.
-Huawei en force-
Among the companies present are telephony giants (Samsung, Xiaomi, Ericsson, Orange, Deutsche Telekom…) but also “tech” and industrial heavyweights, such as Qualcomm, Airbus and Microsoft, the MWC having in recent years has expanded its audience.
Presentation of new Xiaomi products at the Mobile World Show (MWC), on February 26, 2023 in Barcelona, Spain (AFP / Pau BARRENA)
The largest exhibitor is the Huawei group, a figurehead in Chinese telecoms, which has an area of 11,000 m2 – a record in the history of the show, according to the GSMA.
The opportunity for the equipment giant to show that the American sanctions, which have greatly weakened its telephony branch, have not killed its “capacity for innovation” nor its ambitions, according to Thomas Husson.
Beyond innovation, this 17th edition of the World Mobile Show will allow operators and tech giants to address the delicate issue of infrastructure financing, particularly for 5G, into which pharaonic sums have been injected.
Operators have long defended the contribution of Internet giants, such as Netflix or Amazon, large consumers of bandwidth. But they strongly oppose it.
The situation is not “sustainable”, insisted on Monday the director general of the Orange group, Christel Heydemann, welcoming the initiative launched last week by the European Commission, which wants a “fair contribution” from the internet giants. to fund such infrastructure in the EU.
“I know that some will express their concerns” but the debate “is open to everyone”, underlined the European Commissioner for Industry Thierry Breton, present in Barcelona, saying he wanted a “new approach” and not “a choice binary between those who provide the network and those who supply it with traffic”.