In Case You Missed It: day three MWC highlights and updates

Welcome to day three of this year’s event

Inclusion and diversity in the mobile industry: do we walk the talk? 

Wednesday morning kicked off with an unflinching session on inclusion and culture in the mobile industry. Gathered to discuss the launch of the GSMA’s Voice Report – a year-long survey intended to set a baseline against which to measure DE&I progress – the panel included CEO of Vodafone Intelligence, Gary Adey, APS Intelligence’s Professor John Amaechi OBE, and Sandra Healy of Inclusio. 

The results were a mixed bag, especially for gender, with Sandra highlighting, “More than one in two women reported limited career growth. Lack of recognition and appreciation is the top reason cited for considering leaving, and salary competitiveness is also a challenge.” 

In the panel discussion, John warned that trust and integrity in senior leaders is a business imperative, saying, “If you're hard to talk to, that's a risk to your business. Disclosure is earned; you must earn the right to hear from people, especially juniors.” 

The session ended with Sandra encouraging leaders to "review today's data, bring it back to their organisations, and build a business case for making culture the top focus.”  

MWC’s biggest gaming announcements 

Whether you pick up a controller for a casual session when the kids have gone to bed, or you’re a hardcore gamer with your own custom rig, there were some big announcements and cool demos on show this week. 

• Lenovo Legion Go Fold (concept): a genuinely wild-looking concept from Lenovo, the Legion Go Fold is a foldable gaming handheld with a flexible display that stretches to 11.6 inches when you need the full experience, or folds down to a more pocket-friendly 7.7 inches when you don't. Detachable controllers complete the package.
• nubia Neo 5 GT (ZTE, Hall 3): overheating mid-session is every gamer’s nightmare. nubia has decided to solve this in the most gloriously literal way possible by putting an actual fan inside the phone. The Neo 5 GT is the only device in its class with a built-in active cooling fan, paired with lightning-fast triggers, AI gaming coach and a gaming chatbot that can read and reply to your messages.
• Lenovo Legion Tab Gen 5: looks like Lenovo is stealing most of the gaming headlines. Also making its debut this week at MWC, Lenovo’s new Legion Tab Gen 5 is a sleek-looking gaming slate packing a Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 chipset, with a screen so ridiculously bright you could run a Fortnite session in the middle of the Sahara and still see every pixel. 

A need for speed 

There are several driving simulators dotted around the exhibition halls, including a NASCAR simulator from Surf Telecom in Hall 6 and a Formula E sim in the GSMA Pavilion in Hall 4. Or, go one step further and remotely operate a real car, as Elmo returns to MWC and the GSMA Pavilion in style after setting a new world record for the fastest remote driving speed, reaching 157km/h at the legendary F1 Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on Sunday. 

Not-so-large language models 

The AI language gap was in the spotlight on the Turing Stage as a panel of experts explored a sobering reality: of the world's 7,000 languages, fewer than 20 have high-resource AI models trained on them, meaning billions of people risk being locked out of the opportunities AI creates.  

“Not everyone reads and writes around the world,” said MeetKai’s President Peter John Alexander. “If you build this unbelievable tool that has the capability to solve a human capital crisis... but I can't use it because I can't actually physically write or read, well, what is that going to do?" 

Quote of the day 

“People and culture are not a cost to be managed. They are a growth multiplier. They shape how effectively this industry adapts, innovates, and delivers value, now and long into the future.” 
Lara Dewar, CMO, GSMA 

Travels on the showfloor 

First stop, an AI-powered Japanese city at the KDDI stand in Hall 4. Enticing attendees inside with its eye-catching flower shop, stuffed to the rafters with brightly coloured blossoms and neon lighting, you can choose a coupon linked to your favourite pastime, and enter the shop to pick up your personal bloom. The system uses video capture and AI to determine customer satisfaction and connects users with personalised retail offers. 

Over on the other side of Hall 4, we noticed Bango’s digital vending machine – a subscription bundling service connecting resellers with content providers via proprietary APIs. So far, the business has concentrated on telcos, but the technology is now being expanded out to other verticals like finance.  

And the award for the cutest tech goes to...  

Welcome to ZTE’s enormous stand with its beautiful minimalist display of cutting-edge technology. The crowds, however, were not to be found gazing at the slimline phones and slick tablets, instead they gathered round the iMoochi - ZTE’s AI pet. According to the blurb, the fuzzy little characters are a breed of ‘non-functional emotional companion’. These furry friends are intended to heal their owners’ anxiety with what can only be described as an overwhelming dose of cuteness – the audible cooing from the crowd spoke to ZTE’s success.