Mobile Congress: Day One in Barcelona | Europe Outlook Magazine

The world’s biggest mobile show, Mobile World Congress, has just ended in Barcelona, Spain.

This trade show looks at the current state of mobile and where it might go next. The event promised four days filled with brand new announcements and mobile handset advances as Firefox, Samsung, Huawei, LG, Microsoft, HP, Lenovo and many others geared up to showcase their best products and services.

Day one kicked off with a keynote speech giving an industry perspective on Mobile Operator Strategies. The media eagerly awaited the announcement of Nokia’s first Android phone.

Former Nokia CEO Elop took to the stage of broadcast the release of BlackBerry Messenger on the Nokia Lumia devices. “Lumia is about innovation and forward thinking. The Nokia X is about the people who look for budget-for growth markets like India,” Elop explained. With affordability seeming to be the name of the game, the Nokia Asha 230a was announced, costing just $61.

As expected, the Nokia X and Nokia X + were made known as their first line of Android phones. Coming with a host of MS services, the phones are built on the AOSP platform, meaning the phones are open source with their own Nokia and Microsoft services on top. Additionally, the Nokia XL was revealed; a much bigger device that comes with a 2 megapixel front facing camera. “Nokia X is essentially a feeder into the Lumia. Nokia X represents our decision to keep MS services as a common denominator throughout our devices,” Elop stated. The Nokia X is $122, the X + is $135 and the XL comes in at an affordable $149.

Amongst other tech news discussed at Mobile World Congress was the rollout of a pilot online education program in Rwanda, as part of Facebook’s pitch to bring the internet to the unconnected world. Dubbed SocialEDU, the new initiative comes today from the social media giant’s founder Mark Zuckerberg, who gave a keynote speech at congress.

The rest of the week’s events were as fruitful and exciting as day one, with various well-known global companies appearing over the 4 days. We will keep our readers updated with the best stories from the week.