In conjunction with MWC Barcelona 2022 which will be taking place from the 28th of February to the 3rd of March, Tara Neal, Executive Editor of The Fast Mode spoke to Dima Feldman, VP Product Management and Marketing at Sony Semiconductor Israel on the company's plans and showcases for this year's event.
Tara: What do you think MWC 2022 will be all about? And what are your MWC 2022 plans?
Dima: It’s been 3 years since the last in-person MWC event in Barcelona. Back in 2019, the conversation centered around 5G, and now that 5G has gone live, the most prominent topic of discussion in Barcelona will be centered on the way 5G technology is being used.
However, MWC 2022 isn’t really about technology. It’s about re-establishing personal relationships with partners and customers, many of whom we haven’t seen in person since the pandemic, as well as getting to know new partners and customers we that we’ve never had the chance to meet in person. Because of that, we expect to see scaled-back booths that leave more room for face-to-face interactions.
At Sony Semiconductor Israel, we have Igor Tovberg, Director of Product Marketing, speaking at the 5G IoT summit on Wednesday, March 2. His session covers improving energy efficiency for mobile IoT. In addition, I will be meeting with other members of our industry and ecosystem.
Tara: How has the pandemic impacted the operational and business landscape of the tech segment you are operating in?
Dima: The pandemic interfered with the way we used to run business in subtle ways. We could not support customers in person, and some of our customers had production delays due to operational disruptions in their factories.
We do expect some changes in the environment once things get back to normal. On the one hand, some new product design activities were slew down due to hybrid work and a need to re-design solutions to cope with component shortages; On the other hand, the pandemic did create multiple new opportunities. For example, there was an increased demand for tracking products like vaccines, where service operators needed more visibility into assets that were in transit.
Overall, we were able to weather the storm and are confident in our ability to move through the next global recovery phase.
Tara: What emerging trends/technologies have you observed in your tech segment in recent months?
Dima: We’ve seen two big trends. The first is taking place in the utility segment, where companies are shifting their deployments from proprietary networks to cellular networks, which mitigates the need to invest in their own infrastructure.
The second trend we’re seeing is a greater interest in innovative logistics and tracking applications. This stems from supply chain shortages and companies looking to eliminate waste. Through tracking devices, shippers have more visibility into their goods during shipment.
Looking at the big picture, we have seen significant growth of CAT-M/NB-IoT connected devices over the past 18 months. This is very encouraging, as we are witnessing the realization of the IoT vision.
