The products and brands with the most 'buzz' at Mobile World Congress

Talk about this year's Mobile World Congress was all over the web as internet users provided their opinion and confessed their love (or hate) for the smartphones, tablets, brands and operating systems that were featured during the four-day event.

Webtrends, a digital analytics company, tracked buzz about MWC , which closed February 17, on social networks, blogs, microblogs and websites to uncover the products and brands that people were talking about the most.

Samsung, Google and HTC were the most buzzed about brands during Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2011.

Samsung's announcement of the new Galaxy S II smartphone and larger Galaxy Tab caught people's attention and resulted in the company becoming the most buzzed about brand during MWC - hot on the heels of receiving the award for being the most buzzed about brand at the Consumer Electronics Show in January 2011.

"Google was the second most buzzed about brand, attributable to its dominating Android platform," said Webtrends's Hope Frank in a February 17 blog post.

"HTC came in as the third most buzzed about brand thanks to innovative tablets and smartphones introduced at the show. Chinese brands Huawei and ZTE had surprisingly very low buzz in the English-language buzz tracked globally this week."

Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 and LG's Optimus Pad stole the tablet limelight according to Webtrends, while the Samsung Galaxy S II, Sony Ericsson Xperia Play and the LG Optimus 3D battled it out for smartphone supremacy.

The focus of Mobile World Congress is typically firmly fixed on mobile handsets, but this year tablets stole an almost equal share of interest with 48 percent of the buzz compared to smartphones with 52 percent.

"The tablet presence was impressive, especially when considering the iPad came onto the market only 10 months ago," said Frank.

Social media monitoring company Integrasco also had its finger on the MWC pulse and found that the Samsung Galaxy S II smartphone was the announcement that "attracted the most attention in Social Media, generating almost 50% of the 'buzz' for handsets announced during the congress."

Integrasco added that "Initial reactions to the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play have been largely positive and consumers are excited about the concept of bringing real gaming capabilities to the Android platform."

The social media analytics firm also noted that "[t]he HTC ChaCha and HTC Salsa with their dedicated 'Facebook button' receive[d] largely negative feedback by Social Media users - potential customers are not buying the Facebook-centric idea which these handsets prioritize since the majority find it unnecessary to have a fully dedicated Facebook phone as most phones already have apps to access the key social networking sites."

Most buzzed about tablets:

1. LG Optimus Pad - 29.4%
2. Samsung Galaxy Tab - 25.1%
3. Apple iPad - 19.6%
4. HTC Flyer - 11.8%
5. RIM BlackBerry Playbook - 10.6%
6. HP/Palm Touchpad - 3.4%

Most buzzed about smartphones:

1. Samsung Galaxy - 23.7%
2. Sony Ericsson Xperia Play - 18.4%
3. Apple iPhone 4 - 16.2%
4. LG Optimus 3D - 15.9%
5. HTC ChaCha - 6.0%
6. HTC Salsa - 5.9%
7. HTC Desire S - 5.8%
8. Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc - 2.8%
9. Acer Iconia Smart - 2.1%
10. ZSTE Skate - 1.8%
11. Huawei Ideos X3 - 1.5%

Most buzzed about operating systems:

1. Google Android - 55.6%
2. Apple iOS - 20.5%
3. Microsoft Win 7 - 18.8%
4. Nokia Symbian - 3.7%
5. HP Palm - 1.5%

http://blogs.webtrends.com/blog/2011/02/17/mobile-world-congress-buzz-wrap-up/
http://www.integrasco.com/?menuid=9&articleid=75