Welcome to Counterpoint Research’s portal of key announcements from Mobile World Congress 2016. This portal provides crisp bites of the key announcements from MWC 2016 on smartphones, VR, AR, AI, wearable and many other related industries.

Third day of Mobile World Congress has brought number of key announcements from Chipsets, Augmented Reality, Wearable and Smartphones industries. We will regularly update as news arises.

For any suggestion and query, please feel free to contact us at analyst(at)counterpointresearch.com .

Xiaomi set to target international borders with MI5

Mi5

Xiaomi launched Mi5 at MWC 2016 with compact design and competitive price — starting at $399. With Mi5, Xiaomi aims to compete with Samsung’s Galaxy S7 & LG G5 – though these devices will likely be priced at least $300 higher. Mi5 is equipped with Snapdragon 820, Quick Charge 3.0, 4GB RAM and other high end features. China will be the first geography where of Mi5 will land, followed by India and then other nations. In China Xiaomi has been adversely impacted Apple’s strength in the premium price tier, and other Chinese companies like Huawei, Vivo and Oppo in high mid-range to mid-range segments. In coming months, LeEco will launch its Le MaxPro in India. Xiaomi (and LeEco) regard themselves as internet companies. Internet companies’ are more concerned with user numbers than unit sales and will forego profit in an attempt to rapidly build user numbers that they hope can be monetized later. This makes them formidable competitors to those players who need to return a profit on handset sales.

VR Phone With 360 Degree Action Camera .

Yezz Sfera Smartphone with 360 Degree Action Camera

One of the recurring themes at MWC was that of creating 360 degree content. This content type is a strong indicator toward a VR-like experience. However 360 content doesn’t need a VR headset to consume – a smartphone screen is sufficient. We term it as pre-VR. The Yezz Sfera smartphone integrates 360 action cameras front and back. They will not be alone for long. However others are likely to go down the accessory route rather than building into the device.

Geeksme & Celistics partner to target LATAM

Geeksme GME1

Celistics and Geeksme partner to enter in Latin American territory with its wearable product line. Celistics will help Geeksme to penetrate key countries of LATAM such as Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay. As of now GME1 a wearable product of Geeksme will be distributed by the network of Geeksme. Wearable industry players are pushing their limits to reach more more geographies as these products are trending especially in youths and health conscious segment of society.

Kyocera aims to integrate Solar-Powered Smartphone  in its product line

Kyocera solar powered smartphone

Kyocera, a Japanese smartphone player popular for its rugged smartphone devices showed its solar-powered smartphone prototype at MWC 2016. Kyocera developed the technology with Sunpartner Technologies. It features a new and more powerful Wysips Crystal. Kyocera has carved out a niche position with ruggedized devices. These are often used in areas where access to power is difficult. Solar can help solve a potentially difficult user problem.