MWC 2012: Days One, Two and Three

Mobile World Congress 2012 is in full swing. So few days, so far away, so many new products — but I see at least three clear trends emerging in mobile tech. Here’s what you need to know about days one, two and three at Mobile World Congress — MWC 2012 — in Barcelona.

One, forget the core processor game. Don’t get caught up in how many cores — dual, quad, forget about it. Pay attention to core type instead. Upcoming A15 cores start shipping in the April, May and June 2012. Here’s the upshot.

• Almost all mobile system processors excepting Qualcomm are based on an ARM core
• Current shipping core is ARm Cortex-A9
• Later this year, Cortex-A15 will ship
• Current shipping quad core processors are A9 based
• Upcoming dual-core A15 is faster than the current A9, but waiting is futile.

Two, don’t settle when it comes to displays: If you’re going to settle, settle for nothing less than a high-def retina-type display — meaning at least 300dpi in phones and about 275dpi for tablets. True retina displays are still to come. Even the Apple iPad 3 isn’t a true retina display in the sense of the word.

Here is a great DPI calculator if you don’t want to do the math yourself. German engineering. On the DPI calculator, anyway.

And three, get ready for some great news. Battery troubles? They’re going away. The next 18 to 24 months will bring substantial gains in power efficiency. Couple that with decreased charging times and you’re about to get a huge double bonus.

So if you need something now, go ahead and buy now. Never, never wait. Whatever you buy is going to get elderly anyway. Why wait nine months and get caught up in the middle of the next wave of massive change over the next couple years? I know for a fact you will want a new smartphone or tablet in 2012. Especially after day one, two and three and the slew of new mobile devices we’ve seen at MWC 2012.