With Faultline back in Barcelona this week, it was clear by the second day of Mobile World Congress – when crowds returned to morning trains and a memo was passed around by badge checkers to request masks be pulled down to validate faces – that MWC 2022 lacked a dominant buzzword. Sure, there were fixed-wing drones hanging from booths that did not have a direct link to aeronautics, and a few cars dotted around to stress the automotive angle, but there was little sign of the buzzword we had braced ourselves for – metaverse. It was telling that not even HTC, and its well-established Vive demo area, had emblazoned its stage with ‘metaverse’ branding. Vuzix’s AR glasses avoided the term…