Wearables used to be a mainstay of MWC, but this is the second year in a row it has been without fitness trackers or smartwatches.
For the second year in a row, Mobile World Congress (MWC) – one of the biggest shows in mobile technology – is without any major smartwatch or fitness tracker announcements.
Instead, the show has been full to the brim with new top-end, exciting phones like the Huawei Mate X and Sony Xperia 1… but why isn’t there more wearable tech?
The show has featured the odd wearable product such as the new HoloLens 2, but that’s not set to be worn by millions of people around the world as they go about their daily lives. It’s targeted at a business audience instead.
The Nubia Alpha meanwhile wraps around your wrist, but rather than being an outright smartwatch this is a device that’s somewhere between that and a phone.
It’s an odd concept, and we’re pretty certain it’s not going to replace your Apple Watch in the coming months. That’s partly because it’s not out until the second half of this year, and partly because it’s trying to do something different to your average smartwatch.
In previous years, we’ve seen phone manufacturers turning up with wearable products in tow alongside their new top-end phones, but we now haven’t seen a major consumer wearable launch at the show since MWC 2017.
That last product was the Huawei Watch 2, and that again was the only major wearable device at the show.
