MWC Keynote – Eric Schimdt, Google Android

Tuesday at 6 p.m. took place one of the most expected keynotes of MWC 2012. Expected particularly due to the presence of Eric Schimdt, chairman at Google. The presentation started with a little demonstration by Hugo Barra (Product Management Director, Android at Google: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/hugo-barra/0/59/833) on the Android related Chrome strength.This integration has three goals:- Providing a faster mobile browser- Providing a clearer and simpler mobile browser- Making the cloud more user-friendyA small demo followed, first on a smartphone, to show Chrome‘s speed on mobile applications, then a functionality which enabled the user to easily zoom and click on a web page, as well as to view different sites open on the mobile through vertical tabs. The last functionality relates to the cloud. Hugo opened several links on his laptop (a Mac), which he switched off, while the links and searched information were displayed on his smartphone.In a nutshell, there was nothing really ground-breaking about this presentation, and the audience got it right, as they responded with weak applause.Eric Schimdt took over for the second part of the conference. The conclusion reached was that, among the 7 billion people on Earth, only 2 are connected, and there is a risk that the gap will continue to widen with the ever increasing technology acceleration.Several years from now, Internet connection will be as transparent as electricity use. The technology related to new applications could save lives and change the world, as the Arab revolutions have demonstrated, and this is even more likely to happen if more people are connected.According to Eric Schimdt, the first thing to do, which is also obvious, is to provide access to the Internet in poor countries, whereas it is in these countries that Internet access is currently the most expensive. He is confident that, afterwards, once this stage is completed, the intelligence and ingenuity will do the rest (with a little help from Android J).Google will definitely take part in this big connectocratic movement, but it remains to be seen how, with all the security, confidentiality and monopole issues which remain unanswered.