Big international trade shows produce a lot of hype, bluster and, when the timing is right, some fairly surprising experiences.  Over the past 10 years that I’ve attended these shows I have seen tremendous progress in device design, throughput capacity, application creativity, the “emergence” of application stores again (“Ladies and Gentlemen, Now for the THIRD TIME, a company claiming to be the first to offer an innovative apps store!!!), and true change in the power of mobility.  I find the experience of attending these shows a funny mix. Mobile World Congress, CES and CTIA are equal parts brutal scheduling, humdrum corporate decks, mental gymnastics of dealing with information overload, regret for having never picked up an amphetamine habit and actual excitement in seeing unusual and unexpected products and events.  

My worst ever trade show surprise was the completely unexpected and extremely unwelcome explosion of a toilet I happened to be using at a trade show in Amsterdam.  True story.  I guess the Dutch still don’t have a total handle on the whole reclaiming-the-land-from-the-sea routine.  On the better end of the “surprise” spectrum, however, last night’s Nokia party produced a real gem.  

In the middle of circus girls climbing impossibly high pieces of fabric to do death defying acrobatics, Nokia’s powerful EVP of Markets, Anssi Vanjoki, took the stage to welcome everyone to evening’s festivities.  What came next was one of those moments that jars your brain and commands that you pay close attention. Vanjoki talked about the long history of Nokia coming to this event and hosting this celebratory party and then came the kicker: Vanjoki announced that Qualcomm’s CEO Paul Jacobs was at the party to help celebrate the recent announcement that the two behemoths would be working together on a new device destined for the US market.  And sure enough there Jacobs was, laughing, socializing, drinking his Cava.  As Vanjoki relinquished the stage to the infinitely more flexible Spanish circus girls, he made his way over to Jacobs and the two had a bit of a hug. A hug!  Now before any of the teams of lawyers rush to include me on their future deposition lists, let me confess that my view was somewhat obscured by many people equally astounded by the turn of events, possibly affected by my surprise at the whole thing and potentially altered by that damn Cava, but I’m sticking by my interpretation of the events.

Now, you’re probably wondering, “What does all this mean?”  Well, as you can imagine, I immediately put in an order for several cases of that particularly delicious and effective Cava.  But more to the point of a professional blog, ahem, the hug was a public display, not so much of love, but a rather a thawing of the previously icy and often adversarial relationship that has existed between these two market leaders for some time.  After years of litigation and public relations battles over intellectual property concerns, royalty payments and ecosystem positioning, this agreement to work together on developing a device for the US market is a small initiative for global giants.  But with operators and other parts of the ecosystem yearning for a pathway to lower the total cost of ownership of mobility, a more cooperative relationship between Nokia and Qualcomm could have a significant impact on the costs and dynamics of devices and their distribution in both mature markets like the US and the EU and in high-growth emerging markets. Vive la fraternité!