Woe to the blogger who complains even a little bit about having to work in Barcelona for a week. But that's not to say Mobile World Congress isn't work, and that's not to say some years aren't better than others. And this year may well have been our best.
We did upwards of 100 stories. (Probably more, given that we undoubtedly missed a tag or two.) Some was done in advance, but more than half was live. (I'd been warning folks for a few weeks to expect some seriously heavy coverage, right?) Work at these things tends to expand to fill the time we have. There's always something more to be done. (We've still got a few stragglers to be posted, actually.)
I'm pretty stoked about all the videos we did.
Having someone like Mark Guim on the ground with us is a game-changer for us when it comes to video. (And we're lucky we get to steal him away from Windows Central as much as we do. And having the crew of Alex Dobie, Andrew Martonik, Richard Devine and Derek Kessler on hand means we pretty much can do anything you can throw at us. I raised a glass in Spain, and I'd be remiss if I didn't do so here as well.
A few other thoughts on the past week or so ...
- I really think folks are going to pleasantly surprised by the LG G5 once they actually get it in their hands. It's a really good phone, never mind all this modular stuff.
- We did more interview-style reports this year. Those are fun to do, though they definitely take more time. But they're important to do.
- Especially that piece on Sony, the new X line, and what it means for the Xperia Z line. A lot of single-paragraph quotes were floating around that morning. We brought you a full interview and the realization that maybe (and I'm not 100 percent convinced either way) the Xperia Z line isn't all the way dead, with great context from Alex's writing.
- Intel's Aicha Evans is awesome. I've been around some candid execs before, but none quite this candid.
- Same goes for Motorola's Rick Osterloh and Adrienne Hayes. The short version there is they've still got some marketing and branding hurdles to overcome. But they're excited about upcoming products.
- I wish I'd been at the Xiaomi Mi 5 event. (Logistical issues strike again.) That looks like a sweet phone.
- I haven't really said anything here about the Samsung Galaxy S7. My quick take is if you loved the GS6, you're really going to love this phone. It's even better. (I'm particularly excited about the size and feel of the GS7 proper.) It's going to be a tough choice between it and the edge.
- And we didn't really touch on 5G at all, which was the main theme of MWC this year. It's coming, for sure, but it's still way early. A couple years before it consumers need to worry about it. It's not just speed this time either, but how all of these connected things will talk to each other.
- We had our list of MWC winners, but I think the big winner was Qualcomm's marketing department. It was Snapdragon 820 everywhere you looked.
So that's (just about) it for MWC 2016. Now the real work begins. We're in the midst of a pretty big overhaul of what we do and how we do it. A lot's going to change, but the core of what we do will remain the same. And it's going to get even better. Stay tuned. I'm excited as hell. Thanks for coming along for the ride with us.
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