"MWC 2012: Eric Schmidt's keynote as it happened"

Live coverage as Eric Schmidt, the executive chairman of Google, delivers his keynote speech at Mobile Word Congress 2012 in Barcelona.

Eric Schmidt is delivering a keynote address at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. 

18.36 General reaction seems to be that Schmidt was good but unspectacular. The main lines from his speech that are being circulated on social media are his predictions that smartphones will be as cheap as feature phones by next year and that search will continue to become more personalised. The line about mobile phones coming with an off-switch has also attracted a lot of attention.

18.23 Matt Warman offers his reaction to Schmidt's keynote:

Schmidt is always a folksy and interesting speaker, and he made a passionate case for the future empowered by technology. But he's not giving anything away - he's outspoken on issues where everyone in the industry agrees.

18.10 Schmidt leaves the stage after taking his final question.We'll have reaction shortly.

17.57 An Iranian attendee asks why Google blocks Chrome downloads in Iran. Schmidt explains that this is because of US sanctions and isn't something he can do anything about.

I'm with you but prison is like... there's no bandwidth.

17.53 Matt Warman observes:

Schmidt says that lots of technological decisions tend to have a pro-democracy outcome. It would be intriguing to see some data on that.

17.44 Schmidt is asked about whether Android will be made available on feature phones but turns the question around:

A better question is 'when will smartphones cost what feature phones cost' and the answer is: next year.

17.40 The timing of Apple's event announcement, which came just as Schmidt took the stage, has drawn wry and amused responses from Twitter:

17.36 Schmidt wraps up his speech and begins taking questions from the audience.

17.30 Schmidt is talking up the potential of mesh networks in developing countries. These are essentially decentralised Wifi networks, removing the need for network operators. Not sure how well that idea will go down at MWC.

17.27 The Telegraph technology business editor Katherine Rushton is in Barcelona too.

Eric Schmidt now playing to the gallery by talking about benefits of technology to small businesses. 'Keeping the dream of upward mobility above.'

Sounds like he is gearing up to making a request for economic or regulatory concessions. Will it be about SOPA?

17.25 Some utopian stuff from Schmidt now about how "the web is evolving into a collective intelligence and a collective conciousness". He's very much focusing on the big ideas here, occasionally straying into hyperbole. For example:

Developers are the builders of human freedom.

17.19 Schmidt is taking about the digital divide, pointing out that less than half the world is online. In Kansas City, where they are building their superfast network, Google has been careful to engage with those who are already or might be disadvantaged. But it can afford to.

Schmidt says:

The future belongs to the ultra adopted people - pretty much us, in the room.

He's also talking about holographic video and driverless cars. Very Tomorrow's World...

17.15 And right on cue, Apple has confirmed an event next Wednesday. Here's Shane Richmond to explain:

Displaying its usual gift for timing, Apple announced an event for next week just as Eric Schmidt took to the stage in Barcelona. The March 7 event is expected to see the launch of the iPad 3.

17.13 Matt Warman reports from Barcelona:

We had a demo of a product that many people are using already, but it's available to far more people after mwc's announcements. Reasonable, but ultimately just a demo.

Here's Matt's review of Chrome for Android.

17.07 We're getting a standard demo of Chrome for Android, going through features such as link preview, tab navigation, limitless tabs, caching etc.

17.02 Schmidt on stage sporting Madonna-style headset mic. He's immediately brought on Android product management chief Hugo Barra to talk Chrome and Android. Or rather, the version of the Chrome browser for Android. Its secure, fast and free, Schmidt boasts.

16.58 We gather from men on the ground in Barcelona that Wifi has been turned off in the auditorium to reduce interference. Ha.

16.56 It's almost go time. In famous last words, I'd like to predict that Schmidt will have nothing interesting to add hardware-wise. Google only introduced its latest Nexus handset at the tail end of last year.

16.46 Journalists are queuing up to get into the keynote and, if Twitter is anything to go by, it is likely to be packed. That's understandable for a figure as important as Mr Schmidt but the Google executive chairman is also well-known for his quotable, off-the-cuff remarks. A few favourites include:

If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place.

Google policy is to get right up to the creepy line and not cross it.

One day Larry and Sergey bought Android, and I didn’t even notice.

16.27 The suggestion from the EU that Google's new privacy plan could be unlawful is unlikely to stop the search giant rolling out the new policy, will allow Google to pool data from all its services - from Gmail, to YouTube, to search - to create a single profile for each of its hundreds of millions of users. Nevertheless, it could lead to problems later on if the recommendations of the Article 29 Working Party are taken further. Reporting its preliminary findings, the Working Party has now told Google that "our preliminary analysis shows that Google's new policy does not meet the requirements of the European Directive on Data Protection, especially regarding the information provided to data subjects".

16.00 Eric Schmidt is likely to talk about Google's plans for the mobile internet and the company's hopes for the Android mobile operating system. His talk could be overshadowed by news that the EU has expressed concern about Google's new privacy policy, which comes into effect on Thursday.

15.55 One of the highlights of MWC so far has been Nokia's announcement of a smartphone with an unprecedented 41-megapixel camera. While the camera is impressive, the Nokia 808 PureView will run on the Symbian operating system, which the Finnish company last year ditched in favour of Microsoft's Windows Phone operating system.

Meanwhile, Chinese manufacturer Huawei's has unveiled what it claims isthe 'fastest ever' smartphone and there have been flagship phoneannouncements from Sony, HTC and LG.

15.50 Welcome to our live coverage as Eric Schmidt, Google's executive chairman, addresses Mobile World Congress 2012 in Barcelona. As always, MWC has been busy as each phone manufacturer details its latest smartphones and tablets.