A mockup from Samsung's team in Norway, poking fun at all the extravagant rumors about its upcoming smartphones.
Just a couple of years ago it seemed like Mobile World Congress, the biggest annual event in the mobile industry, was losing its luster. Worried that their new flagships would drown in a sea of announcements, Samsung, HTC and Sony held their pressers weeks or months before or after the show, which takes place every year in Barcelona in February. And CES, which thematically overlaps with the MWC and is held two months earlier, was beginning to take some wind out of the event's sails.
Focus shifted on Chinese smartphone makers such as ZTE and Huawei, as well as smaller, innovative companies trying to carve a niche in the competitive smartphone space, like Blackphone and Yota. Samsung, which returned in a big way in 2014, had a backup plan, with a simultaneous launch event in NYC.
Now, as MWC 2015 draws near (officially, it runs March 2-5, but news will start rolling out a day before that) it seems it's all coming together once again in Barcelona.
We know with a high degree of certainty that this year, Samsung and HTC will announce new flagship devices. The verdict is still out on the LG G4 and the Sony Xperia Z4 — at this point, it's likely these two will be launched at a later date, but nothing is ruled out yet.
A Samsung press image, showing its upcoming flagship phone, the Galaxy S6.
LG, however, went on a device-launching spree last week, revealing four mid-range smartphones — Magna, Spirit, Leon and Joy — began shipping its updated curved phone, the LG G Flex 2, and teasted a new wearable, the LG Watch Urbane. And Sony, which always has a strong presence at MWC has experienced an unfortunate leak of a new tablet Wednesday, the Xperia Z4 Tablet, with an official release date on March 3.
The largest Chinese smartphone makers — Huawei, ZTE, Lenovo and Xiaomi — will also be in Barcelona, and Microsoft has a Windows Phone event scheduled as well. Of course, not every company can launch its flagship on the same day, and Apple is never present at the event, but it still looks most of the largest smartphone makers will have a strong showing at the MWC this year.
Though we're anxious to see the new powerful flagships, the news this year will be particularly interesting since there's a lot on the line for these smartphone makers. HTC has been making great smartphones, but has struggled financially for years. Samsung's last quarter wasn't too great either — the Galaxy S5 just wasn't that exciting, and the company is rumored to take some risks with the S6, mostly in the form of a three-sided curved screen. In China, Xiaomi flew past everyone in the last year — we'll see how the other heavy-hitters in the vast Chinese market will react.
This is the question wearable tech manufacturers will try to answer in Barcelona this year. The details about the Apple Watch, scheduled to arrive in April, have been known for months now, though Apple will likely give us a lot more during its March 9 event, which of course takes place after MWC. But have intervening months been enough for Samsung, LG and others to create a decent competitor?
LG, for one, has tried to make its smartwatch more fashionable. The company's LG Watch Urbane has been announced Tuesday, and it will be on display on MWC. And we have pretty strong indications we'll see several other high-profile watches at the event.
It's not only about watches. With Google Glass being pulled from the market recently — temporarily, Google claims — a lot of smart-glasses manufacturers are probably wondering where to go next. No smart eyewear device has even begun to reach the mass market, but the interest was clearly there. Sony reacted fast by putting its SmartEyeglass — a device quite similar to Google Glass — up for pre-order in February. MWC will be a good testing ground to see where the rest of the pack goes.
Looking at MWC's official program this year, several other trends are prominent. Connected cars and smart homes will definitely be there on display, though we've seen a lot of those in recent years as well. Sony's Life Space UX is one of the projects we've been following; we'll check if Sony upgraded it following the presentation at CES this year.
One buzzword that's mentioned a lot is 5G — unfortunately, outside of some fancy demos, it's likely bound to stay all talk this year. 5G mobile networks are at this point pretty much defined as really, really fast mobile networks, with technical details somewhat ad hoc. As an illustration of how far we are from seeing whatever comes after LTE, consider that Huawei has plans for a 5G mobile internet trial at the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
Finally, a recurring trend at MWC is one or two small companies stealing the show despite the big announcements. Last year, the promise of ultra-cheap smartphones, as well as very secure ones caught our eye. We're looking forward for similarly positive surprises this year.