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Follow UsKirstin Ridley and Georgina Prodhan
HANOVER: Europe's mobile phone establishment proved uncharacteristically shy about bringing high-speed, third-generation (3G) quality video and data phones to high streets during the annual CeBIT trade fair in Germany.
But other services that were once thought pipe dreams have arrived, along with rare sunshine at the technology industry's largest consumer show, on the outskirts of Hanover, in north western Germany.
The latest picture phones, new music services for mobiles, Internet CD stores and wireless game players that can battle rivals on the other side of the world are on show, alongside the usual display of gadgets, such as the world's smallest PC, half the size of an A4 sheet, which weighs in at just 1.25 kilos.
Last year, there was much talk of Wi-Fi, or speedy wire-free Internet connections for laptops, but it proved elusive. This year, laptops offered three or four Wi-Fi choices and the focus at the fair was on services that were hot -- and available.
"A lot of this stuff used to be just for freaks, people who wanted to see the insides of computers," said Claas Wolter, editor at German online magazine mediatainment publishing. "Now you can actually see the final product that works."
Trade fair organizers said visitor numbers, which are expected to reach around 500,000, were up on last year. They can no longer boast the throngs that flocked here in the heady days of 2000 -- just before the industry slid into a three-year slump -- but some small companies reported brisk business.
"I haven't even had time to leave our stand to check out anything here," said Lutz Jaeger, marketing manager of E-Resto, a start-up company plying a wire-free box that sits on restaurant tables and allows customers to send orders directly into kitchens and bars.
"We've already had trial orders from Israeli and Dutch companies. I've been amazed at how busy we are."
SHY ON 3G
But the excitement that once surrounded 3G was noticeably absent.
Rivals had scoffed at mobile phone giant Vodafone Group Plc's decision last month to launch a phoneless version of 3G, which promises fast, quality audio, video and picture services, by selling 3G laptop cards instead.
But none could show a rival card, let alone a phone.
Vodafone, which plans to start selling 3G phones in the second half of the year, has bluntly stated that 3G phones available now are simply not ready for the high street, as British-based rival mmO2 Plc found to its cost.
Twice mmO2 tried to show at a news conference a clip from Sofia Coppola's aptly named film "Lost in Translation" on a Nokia 7600 phone to demonstrate the power of its first 3G phone. And twice it failed.
Juergen von Kuczkowski, the head of Vodafone's German unit, told Reuters: "That's just great. They (Nokia) are bringing a product to market which...is forever dropping calls." But he added that bi-weekly software upgrades could yet resolve the phone's glitches.
"MmO2 get what they deserve," crowed another rival. "You'd have to be crazy to do a live 3G demonstration in front of scores of reporters. You're asking for trouble."
However, hopes are high that the industry, which is dusting itself off after a three-year slump, will get out cheque books and start spending again. Telecoms companies alone, some of which flirted with insolvency two years ago, have cleaned up balance sheets and cashflows are back at highs.
"With cheaper credit available and customers having to replace their turn-of-the-century equipment, they're going to start spending again," noted Frank Kreft, an office supplier scouting for new Internet gear to sell to customers.
IMPROBABLE TOYS
Of course there was the usual array of tech toys, including an upgraded prototype "BenHur" -- a firewall, Internet, e-mail, spam and virus filter that its maker, German technology group Pyramid, has thoughtfully -- and surreally -- designed to double as a cocktail mixer.
And there were the usual gifts to lure people onto company stands -- and the usual ribbing among rivals.
MmO2, the smallest of Germany's four mobile phone operators, handed out trainers -- possibly to highlight its allegation that it was making great strides in narrowing the revenue gap to its arch-rival, third-ranked E-Plus.
Meanwhile E-Plus, whose Dutch parent KPN attempted and failed to buy out mmO2 last month, offered rucksacks. "We can just shove them in our bag," laughed one E-Plus staffer.
© Reuters
(Additional reporting by Boris Groendahl, Lucas van Grinsven, and Hendrik Sackmann)
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