A highlight in the annual tech calendar, Mobile World Congress is set to see a host of new announcements from leading smartphone manufacturers around the world.
MWC, held in Barcelona from 27 February to 2 March, will see the latest from Samsung and Sony as well as the return of Nokia. The tech isn’t limited to smartphones either as wearables, VR/AR, voice interfaces and other gadgets are revealed that will likely be on general sale at some point this year.
The Monday evening keynote, typically the highest profile speech at the event, will see Netflix CEO and Founder Reed Hastings take the stand. Last year it was Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook. It’s great the event continues to attract companies that have made new tech the cornerstone of a successful business.
With the eye watering number of new handsets being announced, it’s worth remembering how the industry has changed. Very few corporates used to buy handsets from IT distributors as they were often bundled with the deal they received from their chosen network provider, but this continues to change as the years pass, with the historic telco channel losing share to the mammoth IT channel more and more each year.
But now we are seeing a separation of hardware that makes events like MWC even more important as we all have more choice over the handsets we use, for business and in our personal lives.
Choice is a great thing. It means manufacturers work harder and technology develops faster. We can’t wait to see the new tech that will be unveiled at MWC!