Looking Back on Mobile World Congress 2018

The GSMA has announced that more than 107,000 visitors from over 205 countries and territories attended the 2018 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Mobile ID World and FindBiometrics reported live from the exhibition floor, where over 55 per cent of this year’s attendees held senior-level positions with 7,600 CEOs.

“We had another highly successful Mobile World Congress, across so many fronts,” said John Hoffman, CEO, GSMA Ltd. “We are gratified with the number of senior-level attendees, particularly the number of CEOs, as well as the continued strong attendance of government ministers and regulators. However, we are not focused on necessarily having the biggest event – we continually strive to convene the right audience and deliver a high-quality experience across all aspects of the event, the conference, the exhibition, and the many other programmes and events at Mobile World Congress.”

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– Listen to our live audio interviews with biometrics industry leaders at MWC 2018 –

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Among the topics and products showcased at the event featured a focus on 5G, AI, IoT, critical policy, the future of mobile, startups at 4YFN,  iris recognition technology, reducing the gender gap, the Youth Mobile Festival (YoMo), cutting edge facial recognition technology, environmental impacts, and more. 

“On behalf of the GSMA, I would like to thank all of our attendees, exhibitors, sponsors and partners who came together to make the 2018 edition of the Mobile World Congress one of our most successful ever,” concluded Hoffman. “I’m only sorry that we could not arrange the typical beautiful Barcelona weather for this year’s event.

Mobile World Congress 2019 will be held 25-28 February, 2019, in Barcelona.

Take a look back on Mobile ID World’s most popular MWC 2018 coverage:

Audio Interviews

The identity industry was out in full force at MWC 2018, and Mobile ID World President Peter O’Neill made sure its voice was heard in these live audio interviews with executives from Nok Nok Labs, Daon, ImageWare, Aware, Sensory, IDEMIA, Fingerprint Cards, IDEX, MEXIA, the FIDO Alliance, Trustonic, Suprema, Princeton Identity, MicroStrategy, HID Global, Iris ID and of course GSMA:

The Biometrics Industry Speaks at Mobile World Congress 2018

Smartphone Innovations

Mobile World Congress served as the platform for Samsung to launch its latest biometrically secured flagship smartphone. But it wasn’t the only OEM with biometric handsets making headlines:

Samsung’s Galaxy S9 Echoes Latest iPhone, With Multimodal Biometric Exception

Galaxy S9+ Wins MWC GLOMO Award (But Not for Best Smartphone)

MWC Brings to Light Multiple New FPC Integrations

MWC 2018: Huawei Leads 5G Charge in 2018 GLOMO Awards

New ASUS Phones Echo Screen, Biometric Mobile Trends

Mobile Commerce

New reports released at MWC paint an optimistic picture of the mobile commerce landscape:

2017 Saw $1B in Mobile Money Transactions Per Day: GSMA

Europeans Ready For Wearable Payment Devices Says Mastercard

Face is the Future

Facial recognition was the most exciting modality in the FindBiometrics Year in Review survey, and that same excitement was on display in Barcelona, where MWC attendees could use their faces for secure and convenient access to the event:

Mobile ID World at MWC: Mobile Connect, Intelligent Scan & Biometrics

MWC 2018: IDEMIA, Omoove Mobile Solution Turns Your Face Into Your Car Key

Egis Technology Showcases Facial Recognition and In-Display Fingerprint Biometrics at MWC

Multimodal and Multi-Factor

Optimal user experience is driving biometrics in the consumer and enterprise markets. When it comes to UX, multimodality is king:

ImageWare Showcases Solutions with SAP, Fujitsu at MWC 2018

Suprema Takes Aim at Next Gen Premium Smartphone Market with MWC Showcase

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Keep the mobile biometrics conversation going: register now for the upcoming webinar New Frontiers in Mobile Biometrics.