This week one of the most important events in the consumer electronics world took place. The Mobile World Congress is the annual showcase for the unveiling of the most outstanding and groundbreaking developments in the field of telephony, from new terminals to the latest standards and important announcements from telecommunications operators. Here's a summary of the best announcements at MWC 2014, which was marked from start to finish by mobile devices, wearables and some great new gambles.

LG G Pro 2

LG released a wide variety of terminals, including the latest version of its increasingly popular Mini (with a 4.7 inch display that makes it anything but "mini"), a new suite of terminals for its affordable L series, and, of course, its new high-end range. The South Korean firm now has a new official flagship for its Western clients: the LG G Pro 2. With a display just under 6 inches, 1080p and a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor, the terminal continues the trend of LG's recent flagships, rightly credited with reinventing the brand in the smartphone field.

Novelties in Windows Phone (And a Nod to Windows 8.1)

Microsoft had its respective press conference during MWC 2014, and although it didn't unveil a new mobile or device, it did seize the opportunity to talk about the next version of its mobile operating system. Windows Phone 8.1 will be released between March and April and will include novelties like support for two SIM cards and—most important of all—support for low-end hardware, so we might be about to see the arrival of inexpensive WinPho mobiles. The firm also announced the first major update for Windows 8.1, which will be largely targeted at mouse and keyboard users and is also due to be released in March or April.

New Devices and Markets for Firefox OS

A year after its birth at MWC 2013, Mozilla remains as committed as ever to its Firefox OS and to the initial approach it announced: conquering the emerging markets that so many others tend to ignore. Mozilla and Telefónica, accompanied by their manufacturing partners, unveiled their new plans for expansion and their latest devices, and Celularis had the opportunity to try out the Alcatel One Touch Fire C. Many new countries in Latin America will soon be seeing the arrival of this platform.

25-Dollar Smartphones

And continuing with novelties from Mozilla, the firm also announced the development of 25-dollar smartphones, a rock-bottom price clearly designed to take intelligent terminals to a much vaster number of users around the globe. This is the philosophy behind Firefox OS, a purely web-based operating system, which means it's "about much more than business". The Asian chipset manufacturer Spreadtrum Communications will make the devices and Africa will be the first region to receive them, sometime this year.

Wearables: Huawei TalkBand B1 and Samsung Gear 2

This year, finally, wearable devices made their presence felt from the first day of the MWC. First off, Huawei unveiled its smart bracelet device, the TalkBand B1, which, as its names suggests, lets you receive calls thanks to a tiny built-in loudspeaker, in true Inspector Gadget style. It also has the usual functions such as showing notifications and certain fitness functionalities. Next, although the first announcement came on the eve of the MWC, Samsung took the wraps off its new smartwatches, Gear 2 and Gear 2 Neo, which completely upstaged the ugly Galaxy Gear with more stylized designs and an operating system from Tizen.

Nokia X, X+ and XL

Although there had been rumors over the last few weeks about the imminent (and sudden) arrival of "one" Nokia terminal with an Android operating system, in the end three new models, not just one, were released—the Nokia X, Nokia X+ and XL— with an unlocked price range of 79 to 109 euros that clearly demonstrates the market segment the company is likely to target. In actual fact, technically speaking the Nokia X range doesn't support Android OS as such but an AOSP fork that combines the platform's essence and ecosystem with the best Microsoft products and services. Like I said, it's a gamble designed (and able) in its own away to challenge Google.

Sony Xperia Z2

Sony remains determined to unify its company by concentrating exclusively on what it does best, and the new Xperia Z2 is all the proof you need. Worthy of being dubbed the new Sony flagship, the terminal takes the best of the Xperia Z1 and improves it, adding 4K resolution recording and, to a certain extent, reinventing the design of the Xperia Z. Sony is already one of the most popular manufacturers in Spain and parts of Europe, so we can expect this to become one of the most coveted terminals on the market when it's released. Not only that: the arrival of the videogame streaming service PlayStation Now will immediately turn this type of terminal into a kind of portable console, making it even more appealing.

Samsung Galaxy Fit

Samsung not only presented its new Gear 2 smartwatch but unveiled its Galaxy Gear Fit, a smart bracelet device targeted at the fitness market that shows terminal notifications on its 1.84 inch display as well as counting your steps, measuring your heart rate and even monitoring your sleep. And it's compatible with at least 20 terminals from Samsung's Galaxy range.

Samsung Galaxy S5

The Samsung Galaxy S5 is the new flagship of the South Korean firm's mobile division, incorporating attractive novelties like a sleek design, heart rate monitor, new and polished TouchWiz user interface, a much faster camera, and even a fingerprint sensor that is sure to be really useful as it incorporates a security mechanism for online payments. April 11 is the release date and it will be immediately deployed in at least 150 countries in order to become the new Android king.

The Latest Trend: Democratizing the Internet

Finally, and in the same vein as Firefox OS, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg devoted his talk at MWC 2014 to the boom in mobile connectivity in emerging markets, which although still far from a reality is certainly the goal of numerous organizations and companies. Nokia with its Asha and X ranges, Facebook through a variety of programs and Internet.org, and, of course, Firefox OS courtesy of Telefónica, all have their sights set on one crucial goal: democratizing access to the Internet around the globe, with the African continent as the first step in the process.

Vodafone and Its Portable Mobile Network

Vodafone surprised conference delegates with its release of a portable mobile network "that fits into a backpack". While most of the event focused on underscoring the interest of steering the development of mobile networks and products toward the emerging markets, the fact that countries like the Philippines could be hit by a natural disaster like Hurricane Haiyan has inspired the idea of an entirely portable mobile network for use, initially at least, in cases of emergency.

Telefónica and Its Focus on Wearables

MWC 2014 witnessed the birth of a plethora of wearable devices from a variety of brands, with firms like Huawei, Sony and Samsung all demonstrating their commitment to this sector by unveiling new models. But in addition to the announcements of several gadgets of this type, like the attractive Galaxy Fit and the Smartband, Telefónica went one step further and announced an agreement with Sony, LG and Samsung to incorporate some of its most important services in these wearables. Integrating Telefónica functionalities in smart bracelets and watches was something that had never crossed our minds until now, but it certainly demonstrates the promising future out there for this market.

Motorola: Smartwatch Plans and the New Moto X

Motorola didn't present any new devices but it did answer questions and reveal some very important details about its plans for the immediate future. One of the announcements it made concerns the development and release of a new Motorola smartwatch this year. It also mentioned the arrival of a new Moto X and the expansion of its Moto Maker tool to new territories.

LG G Flex

LG unveiled the world's first curved display smartphone. The curved design enhances the display of multimedia formats, improves communication by fitting your mouth and ear more comfortably when you speak, and offers better sound quality when laid flat.

Blackphone

Blackphone is a new Android telephone built around the cornerstones of privacy and security. All the information physically stored in the device is encrypted, but all the outgoing communications (text messages, calls, emails, etc.) are encrypted as well in real time, using cloud services. This means that no one, not even telecommunications operators and web advertisers, can know who is behind those communications or their content. Blackphone has already reached the stores and retails at $629.

Samsung Knox 2.0

BYOD, or “Bring your own device”, is something we are hearing more and more. This philosophy consists in letting workers use their own equipment and terminals to access the information they need to do their jobs. However, this practice has obvious security and privacy risks. No doubt with this mind, Samsung presented its improved version of Knox, which runs in its new Samsung Galaxy S5 and in 25 million devices around the globe (including Galaxy SIII, Galaxy S4 and NoteII). The integration of dual-factor verification with a password and fingerprint, plus a generator and manager of encryption keys and the possibility of configuring two different access point names (APNs), are some of the novelties. In short, the system offers a safe way of separating work-related and personal information. The release is scheduled for the second half of the year.

Blackberry

Blackberry unveiled its new device, the Blackberry Z3, with a completely tactile 5 inch display. This stylish and reasonably priced smartphone comes with the latest Blackberry 10 operating system and will cost around $200. Meanwhile, the new Blackberry Q20 remains faithful to the Canadian brand's signature style with a QWERTY keyboard, though it also comes with a 3.5 inch tactile display, offering a slightly improved version of Blackberry's classic Q10.

 

Blackberry also presented Enterprise Service 12, its new platform for developing corporate applications for deployment in Blackberry smartphones and other mobile devices. For instance, apps like the ones built into the new Enterprise BBM (eBBM) suite, a new range of products and services that aim to offer a corporate messaging service with the advantages of BBM and functions designed for the business sector.

Whastapp to Include Voice Services

Jan Koum, CEO of WhatsApp, announced plans to include voice services in the famous messaging app during the course of this year, competing with Viber and Skype. He mentioned the use of technology that permits the least amount of bandwidth so that VoIP can still be used for voice services even with slow connection speeds. Initially, they will concentrate on Android and iOS, but will then move on to Nokia and Blackberry. Despite problems over the weekend, Koum said that another 15 million users had joined the service since Facebook announced its acquisition, which suggests that the result could not have been better: 5 million fled to Telegram and 15 million opted for WhatsApp. According to TechCrunch, the announcement at the MWC coincided with the app's birthday, as it was first launched on February 24, 2009. To date, nothing has been said about its integration with Facebook, so it seems that the two platforms will remain totally independent (at least for the moment).

 

HTC joins forces with CERN and SETI to power up research through smartphones

In addition to unwrapping its new HTC Desire 610 and HTC Desire 816, the Chinese company announced a new project known as Power to Give, inspired by IBM's famous World Community Grid. The idea is to use smartphones to power up research. The company is conscious of the fact that "being part of the future" is not just about developing new mobile apps in isolation but in conjunction with the greatest stakeholders in science, and Power to Give has been welcomed by leading institutions like CERN, SETI, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the University of California, among others. If IBM managed to recruit 650,000 volunteers to "save" researchers nearly 850,000 hours of computing power, why not try to do the same through our mobile devices? That is the idea behind the Power to Give project: powering up research in a variety of fields ranging from biomedicine to the search for extraterrestrial intelligence and particle accelerators. All you have to do is download the mobile app, and then while the phone is charging and connected to a WiFI network Power to Give will allow you to receive "small bits" of data from major research projects. Thanks to this small citizen science gesture, users will be able to power up scientific research in fields like cancer, nutrition around the world, astrobiology and particle physics. The Power to Give app is already available for download from Play Store.

The world of instant messaging is changing, and changing dramatically. In addition to the acquisition of WhatsApp and its announcement to offer calls VoIP, Telegram is already outstripping expectations. Meanwhile, all the other messaging apps are taking their own gambles, like LINE, which has unveiled two new novelties. The first one is an attempt to compete with Skype as it will allow calls to other phones, both mobile and landlines, not connected to LINE. Users will take out credit plans to make calls through their Internet connection. The service will be rolled out in March in selected countries, including Spain. LINE is also going to reinforce one of its most popular and much-imitated aspects: stickers. The company confirmed that it will allow people to sell their own stickers through the app store. Users will be able to sell sets of up to 40 stickers as long as they meet a set of reasonable criteria, like a minimum size, margins, not making any references to brands, and not being part of an advertising campaign. For now, users can register as creators but the official release date has not yet been announced.

To end, here is a summary and brief analysis of the hallmarks of this edition of the Mobile World Congress. Last year at MWC 2013, we noticed that operators unveiled their own proposals (including the showstopping Firefox OS from Mozilla and Telefónica), but there was a conspicuous absence of major launches or new star products from Samsung, HTC and others, and a gaping hole where  Android should have had a stand but didn't, just like this year. You could say that MWC 2013 was the MWC of the emerging markets. The same thing happened this year but there were several other trends as well, all of them fascinating, which are analyzed below as five key hallmarks to describe Mobile World Congress 2014