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"There's a running joke at this year's Mobile World Congress: \"If you want to see all the cool phones that are coming out this year, you can do it one week before and one week after the MWC.\"\nActually, it's not a joke at all, it's the harsh reality of the world's biggest mobile industry event.\nHTC announced its 2013 flagship, the One, one week before this year's MWC. Samsung will launch its Galaxy S IV ten days after the event. Sony announced its Xperia Z in January. Apple is traditionally absent from the event, Microsoft is here mostly as a partner, and Google doesn't even have a booth this year.\nWe just named six out of ten biggest names of the mobile industry, and none of them had much to show at the biggest mobile industry event of the year.\nAnd much of what we've seen on the rest of the show \u2014 as nice as it may be, like Nvidia demoing 4K video streaming from a tablet to a humongous 4K LCD screen \u2014 has already been shown at CES in January. \nThere WAS News\nDon't get me wrong: I certainly don't wont to undermine the big announcements coming from the other big names of the industry \u2014 ZTE, Huawei, LG. All these companies, and several other smaller names, have made news and shown us their flagship devices for 2013. \nFurthermore, Samsung did show us the Galaxy Note 8.0; HTC did bring countless units of its freshly announced One, Nokia launched a bunch of low-end devices and Sony has given us its Xperia Tablet Z to try out. \nAnd the MWC itself, which moved to a huge new venue in Fira Gran Via, looked better than ever, with hundreds of app developers, hardware companies, accessory makers and telecoms competing for our attention. From a business standpoint, if you're in the mobile industry, this is the place to be. \nBut when you're a journalist, you thrive on big news at these events, and they were sorely lacking. \nLooking For Something Memorable\nCase in point: the MWC officially goes on for four days. Three days in, and the schedule for press conferences that's listed on one of the screens in the media room is empty. \nIt's the old problem of trade shows: eventually, the big companies figure out that they get more attention if they host their biggest announcements at standalone events. First they move their announcements one or two days ahead of the show, and then \u2014 like this year at MWC \u2014 they move them even further away, so they're no longer part of the MWC. Apple, which only cares about its own events, figured this out ages ago. The the rest of the mobile industry has now caught up. \nWe're not sure what \u2014 if anything \u2014 the GSMA, which organizes the MWC, can do to remedy this next year.  The Samsungs and HTCs of the mobile industry world aren't likely to cram their events any closer together than they did this year, and they sure don't like the idea of journalists pronouncing the other company's flagship \"the best phone\" they've seen at the show. \nBut MWC is, in part, a \"product and technology exhibition\" for the mobile industry. If the GSMA wants the media's undivided attention, it should make sure the media has something to pay attention to next year. \n\n\nMWC gadgets\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nGadgets at the Mobile World Congress\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nImage by Mashable, Stan Schroeder"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2013/02/27/mwc-disappoint/>