Is Mobile World Congress dead?

What is MWC?

The MWC is one of the largest and most influential events in the mobile technology industry, attracting thousands of attendees from all over the world, including executives, investors, journalists, and government officials The event is held in Barcelona, Spain, over several days.

At the event, participants have the opportunity to attend keynote speeches and presentations by industry leaders, participate in panel discussions and debates on relevant topics, and explore the latest mobile products and services on display in the exhibition hall. The MWC plays a significant role in shaping the direction of the mobile industry and is widely regarded as a must-attend event for anyone involved in the field.

MWC’s Downfall

The future doesn't look all glitter and shiny for MWC as now it is just a shell of its former self, due to the pandemic the 2020 edition of the event had to be cancelled, and the 2021 MWC took place with a reduced capacity. Although the pandemic added fuel to the fire, the MWC has been facing problems for quite a while now.

As a matter of fact, with rapid growth in tech in the past decade, there is not a lot left to innovate in mobile tech and with modern phones lasting for a good 2-3 years. The mobile tech space is facing a challenge as a whole. Even big brands nowadays shy away from showing new tech at MWC, their reasoning being if “they can have the spotlight all alone, then why share?” This is backed by the fact that Samsung launched its latest addition to its flagship “S “lineup The S23 in a separate event before the MWC. Even Qualcomm launched its latest gen of chips in Hawaii. Many big brands are following in the footsteps of Samsung and Qualcomm.

Now only Chinese manufacturers like Xiaomi, Vivo and Oppo are the sole flag bearer of MWC left, but now with the rise in the popularity of MWC, Shangai even they also might shy away from revealing all their cards at the Barcelona event The gaining popularity of its competitor the CES(CONSUMER TECHNOLOGY ASSOCIATION) is also a significant cause of concern for the MWC Bounceback GSMA is aware of all these changes happening in the world, which is probably why in the last couple of years GSMA has evolved and expanded its focus beyond traditional mobile technology and now covers a wide range of related fields, such as the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), and 5G connectivity, among others, expanding its door to not just mobile tech, but tech as a whole.

Both 5G and VR tech was first launched at MWC, which are all the buzz nowadays. So, it is probably safe to say that MWC is not going anywhere, but sure only time will tell if it will ever be able to reach its peak glory again