Watch: Charting What’s Hot at Mobile World Congress ‘15

In the heart of Barcelona, 85,000 attendees are finding out what’s next for mobile at Mobile World Congress 2015.

The biggest news is that ‘mobile’ doesn’t refer to phones and tablets anymore. Watches, glasses, goggles and more are being revealed on the show floor. Demos are wooing journalists, and they’re flocking to Twitter to talk about it.

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Look who’s talking

Since Monday, we’ve seen over 15,000 tweets about the conference on Twitter alone.

The biggest hashtags have been #mwc, #mwc15 and #barcelona. Surprisingly, only 6% of mentions came from Spain – most people are ‘attending’ the conference remotely, with over half the conversation coming from the US.

Gender inequality has plagued the tech world, and it seems particularly pronounced at industry events. While women are given prime spots in keynotes and presentations, the conversation on Twitter is largely dominated by men.

The conference in recent years has moved away from spec-heavy pissing contests to inspire attendees with a fanciful future of mobile technology and how it’ll influence everything.

Interests are diversifying.

The interests are diversifying, but the job roles don’t seem to be. Tech giants like to imagine the whole world is keenly watching every word that comes out of Barcelona. In reality, the conversation is dominated by navel-gazing execs, writers and marketers.

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Form, factor and finesse

Despite the show’s namesake, one of the newest themes had nothing to do with mobile phones at all.

With the announcement of HTC’s Vive headset and the revamped Galaxy Gear VR, virtual reality became a hot topic, accounting for a sizeable wedge (7%) of the conversation.

Smartwatches beat out tablets in terms of conversation, with every manufacturer in the building having some wrist-bling to show off.

Every tech brand competes to become the name everyone remembers as they walk away from the show.

Giants like HTC and Samsung were competing with up-and-coming Chinese manufacturers Huawei for a top spot. Even Sony’s gargantuan marketing budget couldn’t compete.

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Brandwatch’s top stories from Mobile World Congress ’15

Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge – Is anyone really surprised at this point?

Samsung’s newest flagship phone now copies the iPhone’s best features while adding a (surprisingly appealing) curved display.

HTC Vive – HTC is the company software giants go to when they want to get into hardware.

Remember the Nexus One? Facebook’s HTC first? Now, gaming company Valve has enlisted the help of the hardware giant to build their virtual reality Oculus Rift competitor.

LG Watch Urbane – Smart watches are big – and now they’re round.

Everyone manufacturer has their own variant of a wrist-worn touchscreen powered by Google Wear, but LG’s is by far the sexiest yet.

Xiaomi Smart Camera – At $64, Xiaomi’s entry into the action camera market continues, their trend is viciously undercutting the price of all other competitors.

GoPro need not worry as, like many of Xiaomi’s products, it’ll be unlikely to hit the mass US market.

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Interested in finding out more about the consumer tech landscape? We researched it thoroughly for our Consumer Technology report. You can download it for free below.