Quick thoughts from 3GSM

I've got a couple of minutes free, so some initial thoughts on what's hot & what's not here in Barcelona:



- Mobile VoIP seems to be being downplayed, especially by the larger handset vendors like Nokia & Samsung

- We won't be seeing many HSUPA phones till 2009 (there's a couple from HTC & I-Mate and Toshiba), although there's quiet a few dongles supporting it

- Lots of LTE demos - but a surprising amount of skepticism about timelines

- However, HSPA+ seems to be bubbling under as a more important near-term upgrade (see Vodafone's trial announcement this morning). I think this makes a lot of sense, especially for operators that aren't sure they can get 10 or 20MHz spectrum chunks for LTE.

- Given a choice of putting WiFi, GPS or a 5MP camera in a phone being designed-down to a budget, the camera wins, with GPS a close second and WiFi trailing after.

- An awful lot of navigation stuff, much of whch actually looks quite cool

- A surprising amount of Mobile TV, which seems to be making a second attempt at wooing the industry. It still looks like a highly questionable proposition except for a few niches though.

- Apart from a few ultra-top end phones (iPhone, some Windows Mobile ones mostly), there's not much sign of VGA screens. Outside the Japanese market, the standard top-end phone is still 320x240 pixel QVGA.

- Conspicuous lack of presence from Apple & Google

- Some cool new devices - I like the G900 from SonyEricsson, and the N96 from Nokia, and the Samsung Soul.