RIP 3GSM

That uberfest of all things mobile, 3GSM (held annually in both Barcelona and Macau) is officially a thing of the past. 'What?!' cry tech-lovers and hacks alike across the globe... but fear not. Rising like a phoenix from 3GSM's ashes are... the Mobile World Congress (Barcelona) and the Mobile Asia Congress (Macau). Whew.

It makes sense. The name 3GSM was of course an earth-shatteringly witty conflagration of 3G and GSM, and while those technologies are still major players they are no longer the sole focus of the exhibition. This year there were scads of WiMax vendors and their ilk and, while the conference is run by the GSM Association, even they will have had to bow to reality.

Of course, "Mobile World Congress" doesn't have the same potential for slightly off-colour pronunciation as "3GSM" (mull that one over), but you can't have it all...