This week's Intel Developer blog takes a look at some of the key areas of innovation expected to take centre stage at this month's MWC.
February is always a definitive month for the mobile industry, with Mobile World Congress attracting some of the most industry-shaping announcements from global companies. This year is no different, and already rumours have been doing the rounds regarding official Intel announcements. It has been revealed that Intel will show a new dual-core, dual-graphics smartphone platform.
Exhibiting alongside Intel at its App Planet stand will be a number of companies exploring some of the most exciting opportunities in the mobile industry, including HTML5 and augmented reality (AR). In this week’s blog, I’d like to introduce you to some of these companies and what they’re doing.
Recently, I mused on the mainstream potential of augmented reality in 2013. Metaio, a particularly intriguing AR company, promises to unveil new products at MWC, and hopes to raise the bar for AR as a whole. Information about these launches is deliberately sparse – and it’s certainly fired up my curiosity! There will be product updates too – I’m particularly looking forward to seeing how the latest release of the Metaio SDK will aid developers with their AR app endeavours.
Vision Objects has started 2013 on a great note; its MyScript Calculator won the Mobile Apps Showdown at CES and has won praise from critics and users alike. The app uses handwriting recognition to enable the user to write mathematical equations on screen. The app then solves the equation. Although the company is keeping its activity at MWC under wraps, I am looking forward to seeing what will come out of the show for this award-winning company.
TeamViewer has also won press plaudits everywhere. You just need to search ‘Teamviewer review’ to see how many publications have given it 4, 4.5 or 5 stars. Users can control their computers remotely using the app, making online meetings a breeze. The simple interface along with the quick, reliable connection and cross-platform availability, has made it a lasting hit with users – and with over 100 million of them to keep happy, I’m anticipating a progressive and revealing few days at the TeamViewer booth.
One of the exhibiting companies that has really caught my attention is Opera Software. The industry’s eyes are on Opera, the provider of the world’s most popular mobile web browser. It has already attracted buzz around its announcements. I’m looking forward to seeing how the new WebKit-based product is going to operate from a user’s point of view. With a revamped user interface, it will be cleaner and easier to use, and will rely heavily on gestures and bigger icons that will enhance the user experience. Named Opera Ice, it is expected to become Opera’s primary mobile offering, bridging the gap between the full web experience we usually find in desktops and larger mobile devices and the bandwidth-saving features that have made Opera Mini so popular.
With the rumours and announcements surrounding the presence of Intel and other companies at MWC, it is set to be a revealing few days for companies, developers and end-users. What has caught your eye in the run up to Mobile World Congress 2013?
This blog post is written by Softtalkblog, and is sponsored by the Intel Developer Zone, which helps you to develop, market and sell software and apps for prominent platforms and emerging technologies powered by Intel Architecture.
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