Innovation is the Essence of Mobile World Congress

When Dr. Joel Engell of Bell Labs answered his desk phone in April 1973, I imagine he was surprised (and probably a bit miffed) to hear the voice of his rival Martin Cooper, a Motorola researcher and executive, informing him he was calling from a mobile telephone. 

Weighing in at a hefty 1.1kg and boasting 30 minutes of talk-time following a 10 hour charge, Mr. Cooper’s mobile bears very little resemblance to its sleek, superfast descendants that reside in our pockets today - but it’s Mr. Cooper’s innovation that has shaped the connected world we live in and the one we celebrate annually at Mobile World Congress (MWC). 

Dr. Joel S. Engel.

MWC has become one of the pivotal dates on the technology and innovation calendar. Industry executives and press converge on Barcelona for a four-day extravaganza featuring the unveiling of the latest gadgets and gizmos, products and services launched by the biggest and the best in the business. 

This year has been no exception with the unveiling of a slew of new smartphone models from Samsung, Nokia and Sony, as well as numerous manufacturers plunging into the world of artificial intelligence. Mercedes made a particularly big impression with MBUX – the Mercedes Benz User Experience.

Showcase excellence in innovation 

MWC is far more than a simple industry junket. The initiatives launched in Barcelona go on to dictate how the global technology ecosystem moves forward, fundamentally impacting how people, brands and commerce interact. 

Look at Huawei’s announcement of its first 5G chip for mobile devices, for example. The company’s CEO Richard Yu suggested at MWC that this chip has the potential to download data at 2.3Gps, considerably faster than speeds available on today’s LTE networks.

Huawei's CEO at this year's MWC.

Huawei’s chip is expected to show up in mobile hotspots and become standard across all manner of smart devices from self-driving cars to mobile devices and smart homes. Onboarding 5G speeds like this will be hugely influential in the AI experience mentioned above from Mercedes. 

Like many others, Mercedes is preparing for improved virtual assistant services, ‘smart’ functionality, allowing for car share and in-car deliveries, as well as parking services and augmented reality navigation. With experiences like these on the horizon, customer expectations are being driven ever higher. Intelligent systems are rapidly becoming the norm: voice assisted search is increasingly common and brands are now expected to be both responsive and intuitive. 

Making sure business is able to benefit from this, among many other innovations, is why Google took a key role in MWC with the launch of two specific initiatives aimed at driving improvements in mobile experience. 

The first, Speed Scorecard, helps businesses measure how their mobile speed ranks against top brands while the second, the Impact Calculator, allows companies to measure how much more revenue could be increased if they improved their mobile site speed.

Why there’s a need for speed 

These tools have been launched partly in response to the findings from Google’s Mobile Site Benchmark Study. Ranking the top mobile sites in retail, travel and finance, the study shows how usability on mobile is central to consumers’ overall brand consideration. For example, Etsy came out top for retail with a 73% usability score, beating the UK retail average by nine percentage points. 

The usability score is defined by site navigability, user-friendly design but above all, speed. More than half (53%) of mobile visits are abandoned if a site takes more than three seconds to load. Discovering how fast and friendly your site is becoming becomes useful if you understand what that means in relation to the bottom line. Google’s Impact Calculator brings the reality of this functionality to life. 

Our analysis suggests a site with an average of 150,000 monthly visitors and an initial conversion rate of 2.5% on order values averaging $75 could see an increase of $225,000 in annual revenue if loading time dropped from six seconds to three. 

Almost every consumer in the UK – 92%- uses a mobile phone. People compare prices (32%), research ideas (29%) and discover brands (23%). If sites load too slowly or the functionality isn’t there, consumers have other options. 

Launching initiatives at MWC is a yearly pilgrimage for tech brands, and it’s important to continue to innovate in order to keep consumers interested. However, without a functioning and fast mobile site, brands are losing at the first hurdle.

The mobile web has to work seamlessly for our consumers to keep using it and at Google, we’re committed to helping everyone improve.

The future of every business really does depend on it.