The GSMA, the organisation responsible for organising the annual Mobile World Congress, yesterday announced a number of new developments for the 2011 GSMA Mobile World Congress (MWC), which will be held from 14-17 February 2011 in Barcelona, Spain.

 

One of the most notable of these announcements is that the organisation will be teaming up with IDG World Expo, an exhibition management company that organises the Macworld expo and the E3 gaming expo amongst others, in order to expand the developer-focused programme at the MWC 2011.

 

This expansion entails the inclusion of new elements such as Macworld Mobile, which is focusing on developers that create apps for Apple’s iPhone, iPad and iPod touch; and the Brand App Challenge, which is a competition focusing on mobile application developers.

 

The GSMA also announced that BlackBerry holding company Research in Motion (RIM) and Palm are the first Application Developer Conference (ADC) partners for App Planet.

 

“App Planet proved to be a stunning success in its debut this year at Mobile World Congress, demonstrating the tremendous demand for in-depth content, networking and business development opportunities and information on the cutting-edge technologies and solutions in the mobile application space,” said Michael O’Hara, chief marketing officer, GSMA.

 

“The developments we are announcing today, particularly the launch of Macworld Mobile which will target the critical Apple developer community, will serve to make App Planet and Mobile World Congress the epicentre for the app world.”

 

All the keynote speakers of MWC 2011 have also been announced and these include Peter Chou, CEO of HTC and Vittorio Colao, chief executive of Vodafone.