The Top Six Winners Of The Mobile World Congress Show

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It was a downright doozy of a Mobile World Congress, make no mistake–we saw a whole lot of different things, and missed a few others. But there were some clear winners to come out of the Mobile World Congress, and as is generally the case on Fridays, I’ve got a list. And this week, I’m going to do a post-mortem on the big Mobile World Congress and put out the top six winners of the Mobile World Congress.

6. Nvidia

We got a surprising–and thoroughly impressive–look at Nvidia’s lineup for the next couple of years at the Mobile World Congress, and though it was heavy on the comic book geek, there was no doubt that the processors Nvidia had in mind were going to be impressive. First, we saw the arrogantly named–but no less appropriate for the arrogance–Project Kal-El, the first ever quad-core processor that managed to yield 1440p video. But that wasn’t the stop, only the start. We got looks at the Wayne, the Logan, and the Stark, and the Stark was the real dinner-winner of Nvidia’s set. The Stark, set to start hitting in 2014, will pack fully 75 times the performance of the Tegra 2, and that’s a thoroughly impressive package. That easily makes Nvidia one of the big winners of the Mobile World Congress.

5. Skype

Skype had plenty of announcements this week, but two of the biggest revolved around their massive new hot spot service, that would provide over half a million fresh hot spots worldwide that offered access at just six cents a minute, and their intention to get on board with AT&T to bring video calling services to Android phones. Though a much lesser known item featured Skype’s magnficent jab at the crew from Espoo, the announcement that if Nokia started firing, Skype would love to start hiring. No one’s sure how many, if any, folks jumped ship from Nokia to Skype, but it was still a knock that put Skype up a notch in terms of respect and notoriety. It was a huge Mobile World Congress for Skype, and plenty of reasons to prove it.

4. Qualcomm

Qualcomm pulled off a very impressive coup out at the Mobile World Congress show for two important reasons–one, they showed off their new line of Snapdragon chips that are set to do some serious things to the cell phone market, representing a surprisingly robust line of processors for the cell phone market. And those chips are already paying some tangible dividends, as Android phones will soon come packing Netflix streaming capability, a long-awaited added feature.

3. HTC

The Thunderbolt. The Flyer. The Desire. The Incredible. All these and plenty more made appearances out at the Mobile World Congress show, and showed, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that HTC was more ready than ever before to be a serious player in the cell phone market. But they also were slated to get Facebook phones in their repetoire, and having all these breeds of phone and tablet out for show made them a hugely dominant presence. HTC had a great showing, and that definitely makes them a winner out at the Mobile World Congress.

2. Google

Notice any similarities about the earlier winners on this list? Netflix…for Android. Skype…for Android. Phones and tablets…for Android. Seemed like everywhere you looked out at the Mobile World Congress, there were more Androids than the Star Trek: Next Generation box set. Yes, I went there. More than a Fistful of Datas out there. And I went there too. But the critical point here is that Google and its Android easily had the best showing of any other company out there. Blackberry? Not so much. Windows Phone 7? Sure, they made their appearance, and I won’t take that away from them. But it sure looked like a whole lot of big news was Android related, and that put them ahead of most everybody. Except….

1. Apple

How could Apple have possibly made this list? you might wonder. And with good reason you wonder this–after all, Apple didn’t even make the show. In fact, Apple had plenty of news that wasn’t even part of the show. But despite all this, Apple still managed to take a hefty prize out of the Mobile World Congress–the GSMA Award for Best Mobile Device. That’s right–they didn’t even show up. Not a presser, not a booth, el zippo nada…but they still took the Mobile World Congress equivalent of Best of Show. They won the show, and they weren’t even there. That makes them the number one on the list of big winners of the Mobile World Congress.

And that’s the look back at the Mobile World Congress show that was–there were a lot of great announcements coming out of that show, but some companies came out better than others. And we had them right here.

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