3 Announcements That Caught Our Eye At Mobile World Congress 2024

The Mobile World Congress 2024 in Barcelona came and went in a flash last week.

Here are 3 things that caught our attention:

#1 Google Gemini is now integrated into messaging

Last month, Google rebranded their generative AI chatbot Bard to Gemini. 

It feels like it could be a seminal moment. A relaunch of sorts now that Google is starting to feel confident they have something that can go toe to toe with OpenAI. The rebrand marks the beginning of a push to get more people to make Gemini their LLM of choice.

There has always been a bit of friction with using LLMs though.

You need to open a browser or go as far as downloading a separate app to use LLMs like ChatGPT. Having to take these few extra steps can prevent usage from being higher than it would have otherwise been. And some people may still turn to Google because it just feels quicker (depending on the question being asked). 

Google has taken a step towards reducing that friction. 

Gemini is now available in their messaging app as a separate chat conversation. It’s now baked into an app that people use as part of their day-to-day. It is not end-to-end encrypted so sharing sensitive information is not recommended but now you can interact with an LLM in a place that feels a bit more natural with less context-switching.

We like the sentiment but this raises a whole host of questions:

1. Will Gemini ever be available on WhatsApp or Instagram? Or will Meta strive to make their LLM model, Llama 2, the predominant player on both platforms?
2. When will Gemini be integrated into Google Search? And if Gemini can provide quality in-line responses, how does that affect traffic to websites and subsequently, Google’s ad business?

This could become a war of LLMs fought on the battlefield of existing platforms.

#2 Samsung unveils Galaxy Ring for health tracking

A prototype of the Samsung Galaxy Ring was shown off at MWC and is set for a full launch later this year. 

We spoke about the rising demand for healthcare tracking in a previous article and so it’s timely that Samsung has decided to join the party (with Apple rumoured to be thinking about their own ring too). These tech giants are clearly betting on this sleek and less intrusive form-factor appealing to consumers who have stayed away from the smartwatch bandwagon. 

Samsung spoke of their vision for ‘Ambient Sensing’ which is intended to provide ‘connected care centred around the home’.

In short, this is an ecosystem play. ‘Ambient Sensing’ is a marketing term for not relying on a single device for health tracking and instead combining data points from multiple Samsung devices such as your phone, your watch and even appliances that you have at home.

Thinking out loud, it could extend to your TV and fridge for example.

In the future, your Samsung TV will know what time you were up until watching Netflix and this might work in concert with your ring to explain your low sleep score and nudge you towards better behaviours. Or if your smart fridge knows you consumed a beer, this could be used to explain your poor recovery. 

The name of the game here is more context. 

And it certainly makes sense. A health tracker that doesn’t know what you are doing outside of exercise provides an incomplete picture of your health. It is less useful and the recommendations are likely to miss the true cause of changes in your metrics.

Whether consumers are ready for a world in which multiple devices in their homes observe their behaviour and habits whilst serving up harsh truths is another question altogether.

#3 Xiaomi introduces their ‘human x car x home’ vision

We’re talking ecosystems again.

Xiaomi, who is mostly known in the European markets for its smartphones, is now entering the EV industry. And like Samsung above, they want to create a seamless ecosystem which merges personal devices, smart home products and of course, their new EV. The intention is to adapt customer needs and be more proactive as they move from the car into the home and vice versa.

For now, ‘human x car x home’ as Xiaomi calls it is vague and high-level.

But it is showing an industry-wide trend for companies to start thinking about diversifying into new products and services outside of BAU. Samsung is entering healthtech. Huawei and Sony are working on cars. Apple is leading the way in spatial computing with the Vision Pro and was rumoured to also be working on a car for the last decade (which it has now apparently shelved recently).  

Ecosystems create lock-in.

Strategically it makes sense. And it drastically improves the user experience. We are working our way towards a future where customers will need to put a stake in the ground and commit to the brand that will power all aspects of their lives. 

And knowing consumer tendency towards inertia and the sunk costs involved in investing in an ecosystem of products, there is likely no going back once they assess the field and make their choice.