'Macworld Mobile' Coming to Mobile World Congress 2011

The GSM Association today announced that it has partnered with IDG World Expo, organizers of Macworld Expo, to offer a new "Macworld Mobile" event as part of the Mobile World Congress 2011 to be held in Barcelona next February. The event will bring dedicated support for iPhone and iPad development to the more broadly-focused mobile industry event.

At Mobile World Congress 2011, the GSMA is partnering with IDG World Expo, organisers of Macworld, the world's premiere event focused exclusively on the Apple products platform, to produce Macworld Mobile, a mobile developer event for the Apple iPhone and iPad platforms. The Macworld Mobile iOS Developer Conference will provide full-day, in-depth training on this critical platform, with technical sessions, targeting tools and applications specifically designed for mobile application developers and engineers.

"We're excited to bring Macworld Mobile to Mobile World Congress," said Mary Dolaher, chief executive officer of IDG World Expo, a leading producer of world-class tradeshows and events. "Macworld is known around the world for helping to drive and stimulate the Apple products community with educational programmes and business development activities. At Mobile World Congress, we will help international iOS developers to strengthen their skills, as well as facilitate connections with other developers and the worldwide audience of mobile decision makers who attend."

Mobile World Congress is the world's largest exhibition and trade show focused on the mobile industry, and has seen increasing attention placed on Apple's contributions to the industry as the popularity of the iPhone and iOS in general have continued to grow. For its part, Apple has stepped back from the trade show scene, arguing that its network of over 300 retail stores offers a better opportunity for its customers to get hands-on time with its products. At Apple's media event last week, Steve Jobs noted that Apple's retail stores see in excess of one million visitors on some days, far exceeding the reach of the trade shows it had long participated in.

Mobile World Congress 2009, the first to occur after the launch of the App Store the previous year, saw executives of mobile phone companies criticizing the iPhone's closed ecosystem while also scrambling to develop their own answers to Apple's entry into the market. This year's event saw Opera demoing its Opera Mini browser for iOS, which appeared in the App Store several months later as the first major-name alternative to the built-in Safari browser for iOS.