The biggest gathering of the global mobile phone industry begins on Monday in Barcelona, and much of the talk will be about the company that is not there: Apple.  Josep Lago/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images  An HTC mobile phone introduced at last year's Fira de Barcelona. Its touch screen is an innovation popularized by Apple.  Its iPhone has been imitated by larger competitors like Samsung Electronics, Nokia, LG and Research In Motion. All of them will be showing touch-screen devices and application stores, two innovations popularized by the iPhone.  In App Planet, a special section of the sprawling Fira de Barcelona convention grounds in the city’s center, more than 50 small software developers, many of whom make applications for the iPhone, will display the device’s capabilities. Elsewhere, manufacturers of netbooks and other mobile, connected devices will show their answers to the iPad, the tablet computer Apple introduced last month in San Francisco.  Meanwhile, Apple’s longtime rival, Microsoft, will be seeking some attention for the first glimpse of its Windows Mobile 7 operating system software for cellphones. The company does not plan to offer it on devices yet, according to people familiar with the company’s plans. Microsoft’s impact on the industry has been diminishing in the face of increased competition from other operating systems.  Apple, one of those new competitors, has never exhibited at big industry trade shows, including the Mobile World Congress. Secretive and focused, Apple rarely ventures beyond its own well-staged promotions. The company has sent executives to the Barcelona show, but has never taken center stage.  “They typically do not exhibit at non-Apple events, but we would very much like to have them join us,” said Claire Cranton, a spokeswoman for the GSM Association, the organizer of the annual Barcelona convention. “Apple products will be highly visible at the show.”  Apple has leapfrogged its Asian rivals to become the world’s third-largest maker of smartphones, the fastest-growing part of the mobile phone market. As of December, Apple had a 16.4 percent share of the market, behind Nokia and Research In Motion, which makes the BlackBerry, according to Strategy Analytics. And Apple is growing faster than either one.  Apple’s ’s growing influence on the global mobile industry stems from the way the iPhone convinced consumers to use wireless data. Wireless carriers worldwide have been seeking to increase their revenue from data use, like texting or browsing the Web, as the revenue from voice calls decline. The iPhone’s 133,000 apps increase data use.  “With the iPhone, Apple has changed the paradigm of the mobile phone industry, just as Apple changed the MP3 industry with the iPod,” said Carolina Milanesi, an analyst at Gartner, a research firm. “They have shifted the focus from the technology to the services.”  The new iPhone 3GS will be part of the official display of T-Mobile, the wireless unit of Deutsche Telekom, which sells the device in 12 countries and is the exclusive seller in Germany.  Michael Hagspihl, a T-Mobile vice president in Bonn in charge of relations with cellphone makers, said the iPhone had brought T-Mobile 1.2 million new customers in Germany. “It’s been a real success for us,” Mr. Hagspihl said. “The iPhone has brought lots of new customers to our network, and our data consumption has gone through the roof.”  Should Apple ever decide to sell the iPhone through multiple operators in the United States, T-Mobile USA would definitely be interested, Mr. Hagspihl said.  So far, AT&T has the exclusive American rights to the iPhone.  But in France and Britain, Apple ended exclusive relationships and is selling the iPhone through several operators besides its original partners, France Télécom’s Orange and Telefónica’s O2.  Even after losing the exclusive selling rights in France, Orange has had no decline in iPhone sales, said Cynthia Gordon, an Orange vice president who oversees the relationship with Apple.  “Apple has had a major impact on the overall market and a very positive impact on Orange’s business,” Ms. Gordon said.  Orange is one of Apple’s biggest operator partners, Ms. Gordon said.  The French operator sells the iPhone in 29 countries in Europe, Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Through October, Orange had sold 1.7 million iPhones, which she said was more than any other operator in Europe and Africa.  IPhone sales are helping Orange offset declines in voice revenue, Ms. Gordon said.  “It has been a platform for us to build on our own sales,” she said. Besides attracting new customers and retaining old ones, the iPhone allowed Orange to develop the Orange TV Player, a programming application for viewing 60 TV channels on the iPhone in France.  Apple and Orange developed the application together, she said.
Apple does not exhibit at trade fairs, only at its own staged events. But many items on display in Spain complement or respond to the company’s wares.