As every year at this time, Barcelona is adorned (and blinda) to receive the world technological elite. He Mobile World Congress It transforms the city into an epicenter of innovation for a few days, but this annual party hides an increasingly accentuated paradox: we are the hosts of a conversation in which we barely participate.
The choreography is repeated. Technological giants (as many Americans as always, as many Chinese as never before) occupy the main spaces of the enclosure. They show their innovations while Europe looks from the stands, politeing politely And taking note about what trends will chaste the future, to see what you can do.
A future that others are designing.
Telefónica or Orange have their space, true. Also Ericsson, Deutsche Telekom or T-Mobile. But the voices that really sound in the pavilions are those of Qualcomm, Huawei, Samsung, Oppo, Honor, Lenovo … and separate mention for the great care magnet of this year, Xiaomi and his Su7 Max.
This asymmetry reflects A transformation that has occurred little by little but has left a crater. In less than two decades, Europe has gone from being the protagonist (Siemens, Nokia, Ericsson, Alcatel) to become a sophisticated consumer market, so to speak.
He stand of Nokia, in fact, is a perfect metaphor. It is a corporate environment that compensates with fluorine colors the executive gray that abounds in its space. Executives who talk about infrastructure while the giant ghost that defined mobile telephony fades between ties. It has another logo, it has another story.
Of the iconic 3310 to the Networkingof the Connecting People to survival thanks to networks. Its fall, that of a colossus that went to Microsoft appendix and then Resurrection Zombie under HMDIt is the story of how empires can evaporate when they confuse their present domain with future immunity.
Today Nokia exists as a 5G network supplier, as a solid company B2B Invisible for the consumer who once adored her. A Mori memento For Silicon Valley.
Ashes of what it was. Image: Xataka.
This emptiness where European innovation was bustled before It is not just a guard change, it is a giant transformation. Nokia represents the delivery of technological leadership in Europe. We set up the party in which others triumph. We consume technology that we do not believe. We regulate innovations that we do not lead. The transformation is particularly painful for Spain: we organize the largest technological fair in the world while our participation in the development of the global digital ecosystem Languidece.
We have Telefónica (precisely imploring a regulation that leaves European telecos better compete), to the Spain Pavilion of Red.es with half a hundred local businesses and a good representation in the 4yfn, the entrepreneurship event. We have actors on stage, yes, but very few considering that the show It happens in our own theater.
The worrying thing is not the absence of first -level Spanish hardware – seeing who competes against Asian economies – but our lack of prominence in software, services or AI, where entry barriers are lower.
This paradox of the absent host raises Uncomfortable questions about technological sovereignty. While MWC pavilions are filled with visitors, we assume the role of spectators, except for honorable exceptions that are not at the level of the giants.
That the global technological conversation continues to occur on our soil is a privilege, but true greatness would be to participate in it as protagonists, not only as decorated of a future that others write.
Outstanding image | Xataka