Digesting the big issues, now the dust has settled from Barcelona.
Well, that's it for another year. 49,000 visitors, 1,300 stands and 756 confusing encounters with hairy-handed 'ladies' of the night on the Ramblas later, Mobile World Congress is over for another year.
So what were the key trends at this year's show? Now we're back home, we've been trying to sort through the brainclutter and make sense of it all, with a monster two-part feature.
You can read the full thing here, but below is a summary of the 20 key themes we've identified.
1. It's all about the user experience. New handsets have their whizzy user interfaces trumpeted now, rather than their hardware specs.
2. Apps take centre stage (sort of). Apps were a big buzz at MWC this year, and although Hall 7 is still a bit a slog, the inaugural App Planet was a success.
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3. Who's havin' APIs? Standalone apps are okay, but the new breed are increasingly working better with each other, and with native smartphone OS's.
4. The GigaHertz wars. Having said that phones aren't about the specs, 1GHz processors are making their way into an increasing number of smartphones.
5. Google is Evil? There's more and more suspicion, anger and paranoia targeted at Google from the traditional mobile industry, for all its efforts to stem the tide.
6. Never mind the app stores. Handset firms and smartphone OS owners are talking up their interfaces, but not talking enough about improvements to their app stores.
7. Microsoft makes waves with Windows Phone. WinPho 7 Series is a big leap on, but the devilish detail won't be made clear until Microsoft's MIX conference next month.
8. Mobile advertising 2.0. This year is going to be fascinating for mobile ads, what with Apple, Google and RIM all planning their own initiatives, while virtual coupons come through as a success story thanks to Foursquare and co.
9. Where has all the porn gone? We only spied one adult content this year - a far cry from its heyday at 3GSM, when the mobile content hall was stuffed with smut. A sector in decline, or a sector that doesn't need trade-show, ahem, willy waving?
10. Mobile music takes a back seat. It's not hyped half as much as a few years back, but mobile music continues to evolve thanks to the likes of Spotify and Aspiro.
11. Mobile TV is (finally) getting sexier. Fuugo knocked our socks off with its swipey touchscreen TiVo thrills, and it's just one of a new breed of mobile TV services that finally deliver on their promise.
12. App discovery via your social graph. Want to find cool apps for your phone? You don't need to phone a friend - new platforms are putting social recommendations at their heart.
13. Google and Apple's M&A-fuelled battle. As the frenemies scrap it out for smartphone spoils, startups are looking to cash in by positioning themselves for a bidding war between Google and Apple.
14. Nokia's Big Statement. The jury is still out on whether Nokia's decision to not exhibit within MWC itself. However, its announcements were a mixed bag - MeeGo risked peeving developers, while the level of service stats released was variable.
15. Three screens plus the cloud. Mobile entertainment is dead! (Note lack of capital 'e'). Increasingly, companies are focusing on digital entertainment, launching their services or content for mobile, but also PC and TV.
16. The speedy decline of Java gaming. Sales of J2ME games slumped in Q4 last year - a trend that's been talked about for a while, but lately confirmed by two of the three largest publishers.
17. Social media aggregation. Operators and handset makers aren't trying to out-do Facebook and Twitter, but they are all launching aggregation handsets to make sense of social media, and surface it to handset homescreens.
18. Going local. There's a lot of chatter around localising apps, and platform owners building developer communities around the world, rather than simply focusing on Silicon Valley.
19. Same app, different platforms. You might think most developers are making iPhone apps then porting them elsewhere. However, rival platforms are still keen for differentiation - witness RIM's desire for 'Super Apps'.
20. Feature phones are getting smarter. Apps have been a largely smartphone-driven phenomenon until now, but apps and widgets are pushing down into mid-tier handsets too.
That's the summary, but for the full goods, read the main feature by clicking here.




















