MakoLab Spólka Akcyjna : at MWC Barcelona 2022 - The impressions of a Java developer

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In mobile technology circles, the transition from February to March means one thing and one thing only… MWC Barcelona. Formerly known as Mobile World Congress, it is the world's largest trade fair. More than 150 countries were represented by 1,500 exhibitors, including Honor, Huawei, Samsung, OnePlus, Xiaomi, OPPO, realme and Motorola. MakoLab's presence at an event of that magnitude was a must, so our CEO, Wojciech Zieliński, set off to sunny Barcelona with software architect and senior Java developer Arkadiusz 'Arek' Wróbel.

MakoNews talked to Arek about his impressions, the technological innovations he encountered and his conclusions about being part of the expo

Arek, let's begin traditionally, at the beginning! On your way to Barcelona, were you envisaging the solutions, services and products you might see there? What were your expectations?

I work in our Financial Software Solutions division and I admit that I didn't expect to arrive and find solutions that I could suggest for my projects or implement on the spot, so to say. I was chiefly interested in checking out where contemporary business is heading and, when current trends connect with MakoLab, then how do they connect? So, I set off for Barcelona with an open mind. I knew that having a glimpse of technological innovations is always fruitful; once a week, as part of our in-house Arch Cop initiative, I meet up with the tech leaders from our other business areas and we swap observations and thoughts on how to tighten up our collaboration and what directions it's worth pursuing.

You arrived. What was the first thing to catch your attention?

Barcelona showed us its innovativeness at the very start of the route that took us to the hotel. Literally. Because I'm talking about the L9 Sud automated metro! As luck would have it, we stepped into the first carriage and it was only after a moment that we realised there wasn't a driver. That was an interesting moment! Getting back to the expo, it's held at Fira de Barcelona, a trade fair facility that offers 365,000 square metres of exhibition space. Well, I wanted to see as much as I could, of course, and on the first day I covered around fifteen kilometres! Apart from the premieres of new phones, like the realme GT 2 Pro, for instance, I could sum up the whole thing under a handful of key points that were expanded on in just about every presentation. They were:

• 5G: over the past few years, diversification of services has been a strategic goal for leading operators. Services going beyond the traditional telecommunications offer are currently a key element of their strategic growth. Even though 5G is an ecosystem that's still maturing, some companies are already tentatively looking to a future bound up with 6g;
  
  
• metaverse: one of the most popular terms in the ICT sector at the moment is 'metaverse'. Plenty of experts judge it to be a concept that continues to be hazy, but that didn't stop any number of MWC exhibitors from promoting it;
  
  
• edge computing: one of the key strategies presented at Barcelona this year was creating cost-effective edge computing services for a dispersed business environment. In a nutshell, edge computing is mainly connected with the Internet of things and it's based on the idea of processing data and, often, of storing them as well, using terminals, controllers or a data microcentre operating close by, in other words, at the edge of a network.

The trends you've mentioned are surging more and more boldly into our daily lives and that's certainly not going to change over the next few years. Do you think we could use some of them at MakoLab now, in our current projects?

That's an interesting question, if only because at every talk I attended, the conversation was held in the 'sphere of the uncompleted'. In other words, we have an idea, sometimes a solution and we're assured that we'll go on working on it and developing it, but in the indeterminate future. Meaning we don't use it here and now, on project X or Y. I think those horizons are only opening up in front of us now, but we'll certainly be observing them carefully and analysing them from the angle of all our business areas.

As far as MakoLab's concerned, I see the greatest potential in the Internet of things and 5G. I think those will be the trends we'll be developing to the full first. What I've got in mind in particular is the Connected Car area, where we've been working for years. I reckon that 5G is an integral part of the transformation of the automotive industry, especially in terms of connected cars, and it's changing the way OEMs design and build their vehicles.

Which of the trends you've mentioned do you think are the most interesting, both in the professional and private spheres?

Privately, I appreciate solutions in 'the spirit of smart'. Smart homes, offices, metro systems, cities and towns… highly advanced technological solutions that use the Internet to adapt completely to people's needs and expectations, making their daily lives easier. A great many of the suppliers at MWC were presenting their ideas and activities in that area. You pick up your phone and it's all there at your fingertips… the technical status of your home, of a given room, and the current conditions there, the status of your devices, what needs changing, what needs looking at. Everything at the level of the smartphone. Brilliant!

When it comes to scrutinising solutions for MakoLab, I'm thinking about the digitisation of all payments and non-fungible tokens… or NFTs, for short. I'm involved in financial simulators, which were initially treated more like a toy than a real tool. Nowadays, managing finances and selling cars at the smartphone level is the norm. Application programming interfaces are changing banking and the Open Banking initiative gives banks' customers a secure way of giving their account details to external suppliers. Personalised financial services and a specific model of car, with the use of NFTs, sounds interesting.

In March this year, McLaren Automotive began collaborating with InfiniteWorld, a platform that specialises in creating digital content, monetisation and driving client engagement in the extended virtual reality you mentioned earlier, the metaverse. Do you think that other global manufacturers in the automotive industry will follow suit?

I think that those kinds of requirements are going to be occurring more and more often. The hunger for innovativeness. Even though it's a long road from the idea to its implementation. At MakoLab, we've been working with leaders of the automotive sector for years and one of the things we do together is develop new areas of collaboration. We not only supply solutions, but also concepts. It's all there, ahead of us and I know that we have developers who are ready for those kinds of challenges.

How did all your business meetings at MWC go? Was the networking successful?

I'd rather not give away any of the details, but we began talks with two companies involved in data collection and analysis. I must confess that our work enjoyed plenty of interest from exhibitors in that field. Our projects feature interesting and complex data that can be analysed using our cutting-edge tools, like artificial intelligence, for example, which is capable of pointing to possible trends, indicators and deviations. There'll be time to give ourselves a pat on the back later!

In that case, what thoughts about MWC22 will you leave us with?

In a nutshell, during my conversations with Wojciech we came to the conclusion that, for us, the talks were slightly lacking in concrete detail. The entire expo, the people, the products and services all certainly make an impression. They point the way and make it very clear that we have the technology… but there's still a long way to go. As I see it, what we need now is practitioners who will translate the visionary ideas into results and benefits. And I think that MakoLab will most definitely play a role in that!