My key headlines from a week of pure madness at the world’slargest mobile show with attendance breaking 67,000 - a new high compared to a reported 29,000 at the 2004 opener.  Barcelona is host to the world’s great mobile show for the next four years.

“There will be an Android in every pocket”

A  new technological “middle class” is emerging to play “a decisive role in changing society”

“A mobile experience at least at the level of today will be available to almost everybody, at a fraction of the price.  In 12 years, handsets are going to be 20 times faster, which means phones that cost USD $400 now will be available for USD $20.”

—  Google’s Eric Schmidt

Schmidt did highlight the worrying rise in complex legislative and regulatory frameworks that hinder Google’s ascent in the US and in 25 countries where they are completely blocked from a total of 125 from which they operate.

INDIA and AFRICA

“The difficulty we have moving forward to the next business model is the lack of a cheap smartphone”

“A USD $50 device would dramatically alter the landscape”

— Sunil Mittal, Chairman and MD of Bharti Airtel

Factoid:  

• India only has around 5% smartphone penetration in India (even less in Africa)
• Smartphone penetration has reached 10% in Russia

RUSSIA

“Mobile data will replace voice as the main revenue earner” — VimpelCom CEO, Jo Lunder

Their view: The small screen would dominate how emerging markets access the Internet.

LATIN AMERICA

“Smartphone penetration is growing fast, and we expect mobile broadband to contribute around a third of all data traffic by 2013. But to continue with this growth we also need affordable smartphone”

— Santiago Fernandez Valbeuna, Chairman/CEO of Telefonica Latin America

More notes to come.  This was a packed event.