This year’s Mobile World Congress promises to be one of the best yet, with a variety of exciting new devices on the way from the likes of LG, BlackBerry, Nokia, Samsung, Huawei, and more.
It’s that time again. Every year, companies from all over the world assemble in Barcelona, the Mobile World Capital, for the most important event in the global mobile industry calendar.
Mobile World Congress (MWC) is always a hotspot for new device launches, giving manufacturers an unrivalled opportunity to show off their latest and greatest products. But from analysts to network operators, MWC is also a hotbed of discussion about the topics, challenges and opportunities that face the mobile industry, including emerging technologies such as the Internet of Things, and 5G wireless.
Indeed, a great deal of what happens at MWC takes place not in the public eye, but behind closed doors, in a near-endless stream of meetings among industry leaders, product managers, analysts and many others. Sometimes, this even includes unannounced products being quietly shown in backroom discussions to get feedback from interested parties; the flagship ‘McLaren’ Windows phone , and Nokia’s ‘Moonraker’ smartwatch , for example, were two such devices to get the behind-the-scenes treatment at MWC, before later being cancelled.
But for those who can’t attend MWC, the most exciting aspect of the whole event is the public announcements of new products which will soon be available to buy. This year, there’s a wide range of intriguing new devices lined up – and as in previous years, many of them will be announced before MWC officially kicks off on Monday.
Let’s take a quick look at some of what to expect this week.
A couple of years ago, it looked like Nokia’s days as one of the best-known and most-loved brands in mobile devices were pretty much over. After acquiring Nokia’s devices and services business in 2014, Microsoft had licensed its brand for use on some of its feature phones and Lumia smartphones, but Nokia itself was clearly done making handsets.
Things have changed considerably since then. Microsoft sold the feature phone business to Foxconn , which is now building new Nokia-branded devices under a fresh licensing agreement with Finnish company HMD Global. The first handset to emerge from that partnership, the Nokia 6, launched last month in China – but HMD has promised to launch at least six Android smartphones this year.
The company could unveil one or more of them at MWC , and it may even reveals plans for the international launch of the Nokia 6 – but another device is expected that has piqued the interests of many observers in recent weeks. HMD is reportedly preparing to launch a spiritual successor to the classic Nokia 3310 , one of the most popular handsets in mobile history.
Few would have guessed a couple of years ago that this is how things would turn out…!
Like Nokia, BlackBerry has also been dismissed by many as a company whose days of mobile industry relevance are long gone. You’d certainly be forgiven for thinking so – last year, BlackBerry announced that it would no longer design and build its own devices , while the latest data from Gartner indicates that BlackBerry’s share of the global smartphone market has collapsed to a statistically insignificant 0.
