Microsoft Windows Phone Series 7, Samsung Wave and Scenes from MWC 2010

Microsoft Windows Phone Series 7, Samsung Wave and Scenes from MWC 2010by Nathan Eddy

There wasn’t much sunlight to be seen at this year’s convention, in stark contrast to last year’s brighter, warmer weather conditions. However, that didn’t stop attendees from traveling back and forth between eight convention halls. Massive outdoor screens—this one broadcasting an interview with Mike Concannon, Qualcomm’s senior vice president of connective and wireless modules, bordered the main concourse. The impressive Catalunya National Museum of Art is seen in the background.

A conference attendee searches for music using Microsoft’s recently unveiled (and awkwardly named) Windows Phone 7 Series touch interface. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer took care to highlight the individual and unique experiences the software could bring to customers’ lives.

At RIM’s (Research in Motion) BlackBerry display center, the BlackBerry Bold, among other models, displays its video playback capability in the midst of a sleek display setup. The Bold offers updated applications for BlackBerry Messenger as well as GPS support and a backlit QWERTY keyboard.

The B2100 is built to withstand tough environments and is protected against impact, dust and even water—that’s another B2100 half submerged in the tank behind the phone. The embedded flashlight guides your way in the dark, and features such as extremely loud speakers and noise cancellation make you heard when you’re out in the wild.

Conference attendees crowd around a demonstration of Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 Series as a company representative explains the social networking capabilities of the operating system. Demos like this were held constantly for the duration of the convention, always drawing a crowd.

Never one to stray from whacky, unconventional or straight-up impractical designs that somehow catch the eye, Japanese handset maker NTT DoCoMo this year put this phone on display, a clamshell handset that looks like a partially melted chocolate bar. It comes in a Melty Bitter brown or Melty Strawberry pink color.

The company made a big splash with its Wave smartphone, featuring Samsung’s open-source Bada operating system and the world’s first super AMOLED screen. Also included is a TouchWiz user interface and a 3.3-inch touch screen display. Samsung said the Bada SDK will be launched publicly in March, and claims the Wave is also the world’s first 802.11n equipped phone, which means potential data speeds could be 10 times faster than current Wi-Fi standards, such as 802.11b and 802.11g.

Sporting a 2.8-inch touch screen display and solar panel on the back battery cover, the Puma phone was designed for an active, outdoor life. For fans of running or cycling, Puma included a pedometer, stopwatch and GPS tracker, as well as a sleek music player that looks like something out of a digital DJ booth, which is shown here.

This 3G handset designed for kids has a few features unlikely to be found on other mobiles-it includes a loud alarm activated when the plastic ring on the right side is pulled, as well as emitting a bright, high-intensity LED light in case of emergency. In addition, the child can discreetly message their location to a registered search user by simply pushing a button on the side of the phone.

At the Motorola booth, the company had a giant mockup of its Backflip smartphone, an Android-based handset, which features a reverse flip design for checking out videos, music and photos. It also includes a QWERTY keyboard and features Motoblur, a user interface developed over Android by Motorola. It’s a widget-based system that combines various social networking portals such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter in one place. The real Backflip, thankfully, is small enough to fit in one hand.