Mobile World Congress is the mobile industry's biggest showcase, and the 2017 version should bring us a crop of shiny new smartphones.
Mobile World Congress 2016 brought us multiple new handsets, including the Galaxy S7, Galaxy S7 Edge and LG G5, as well as hardware announcements from everyone from Huawei to Sony.
Mobile World Congress 2017 is rapidly approaching, which means that the world of mobility is about to change once again as the big players in the mobile space announce their new phone hardware for 2017. It's not just a hardware frenzy, however, with significant news and deals emerging across other mobility markets, from the Internet of Things through to mobile banking, telco deals, future networks and software innovations.
What is Mobile World Congress?
Mobile World Congress is the largest and most significant mobile-first conference in the world, held annually in Barcelona. It’s run by the GSMA, with several sub-conferences in other locations, but the primary conference is held in Europe, typically Barcelona, each year.
When will Mobile World Congress 2017 take place?
The official dates for Mobile World Congress 2017 are 27 February 2017 to 2 March 2017, although in terms of news announcements around hardware, software and partnerships, it’s not unusual to see launches just prior to the official start of the conference itself.
It’s still relatively early days when it comes to rumours, leaks and outright pre-announcements regarding the major phone maker’s plans, but here’s what we expect to see at MWC 2017:
Samsung
It’s all but assured that Samsung will announce the Samsung Galaxy S8 at Mobile World Congress, or (if history is any guide) the night before the show itself kicks off. The Galaxy S8 will have a lot of Samsung’s hopes resting on it after the explosive failure of the Note 7.
It will be interesting to see how Samsung evolves its already excellent Galaxy S7 design, with the suggestions revolving around the South Korean manufacturer "doing an Apple" and removing the headphone jack from the S8. Whether it debuts one phone, or two, or opts to try to revive the core ideas behind the Note category remains to be seen.
Samsung’s not likely to rest simply on the Galaxy S8, however. An accompanying and updated Gear VR headset is extremely likely to accompany the Galaxy S8, as well as potentially a successor to the Gear 360 camera. Samsung has the capability to produce plenty of mobile-centric gadgets, and MWC 2017 may be where it chooses to show them off, even if we don’t get to actually buy them until later in the year.
LG
LG went head to head with Samsung at MWC 2016 pitting its modular but ultimately disappointing LG G5 against the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge. Rumours suggest that LG has gone back to the drawing board for a more conventional design for what will presumably be the LG G6, but whether it opts to occupy a slightly less premium-priced space, or go all out with a revised feature set as it did with the G5, is still up in the air.
Like Samsung, LG certainly has the capability to deliver other mobile-centric devices. Last year it was all about the LG G5’s "friends" companion devices, but unless it decides to double down on modularity that seems like a long shot, and it may decide to simply focus on showing off a handset rather than multiple devices.
Sony
Sony’s presence at MWC is usually one of launching handset ranges rather than a single hero device, as it did in 2016 with three Xperia X devices. Those took some time to come to market and were supplanted somewhat via the very attractive Xperia XZ. Still, even though that phone won’t be that old by the time MWC rolls around, Sony is unlikely to want to cede any ground to its competitors, so the debut of what may well be the Xperia X2 series seems likely.
Like its competitors, Sony has the capacity to reveal additional mobile gadgets or services, as it did with the Xperia Ear and the associated concept gadgets such as the Xperia Projector, Eye and Agent. Sony was very keen at MWC 2016 to point out that it sees a strong future in companion devices, so expect to see something from Sony in this category as well.
Huawei
Huawei is another firm with its finger in many mobile markets, although it used MWC 2016 to launch a laptop rather than a handset. Having already announced the Huawei Mate 9, and revealed that it will launch in Australia in early 2017, it may be too soon for Huawei to go for a fully fledged flagship device. It's not afraid to play in the mid-range space, however, or for that matter offer up wearables, which could be another avenue for it with Android Wear 2.0 coming down the track.
Motorola
Motorola and its parent Lenovo will no doubt announce new mobile hardware at MWC. The big caveat here is that to date Lenovo’s strategy has been to only release Moto-branded hardware to the Australian market. That raises the distinct prospect of some interesting technology announcements around products that we won’t actually see released locally.
Moto is the exception to that, and with Motorola so firmly placing its bets behind its Moto Mod range, we’d expect to see some new Mods, if not new phones at MWC if only to maintain momentum for both the strategy and the branding.
Microsoft
Despite rapidly falling market share, Microsoft is still exceptionally keen to stay in the mobile space, recognising it as key to the company’s fortunes as it shifts over time into a services company.
The rumour that’s done the rounds for some time now is that Microsoft will announce a Surface-branded smartphone, although it’s equally as likely that it will simply use MWC to show off Windows 10 Creator Update across a range of mobile devices including tablets and 2-in-1 laptops.
HTC
HTC skipped MWC 2016, preferring to wait out the storm before announcing the HTC 10. It has already announced a launch event with a "U" tag for just after CES 2017 wraps, where it's expected to launch a handset device of some sort. Whether the diversified Taiwanese company also holds a handset in place to announce at MWC is as yet unknown, although it's likely that it will use MWC to further push its other hardware lines such as the HTC Vive.
Hey, where’s Apple?
While Apple’s iOS-based iPhone devices make up a healthy quantity of smartphone sales, the Cupertino company traditionally never turns up to MWC, preferring its own heavily stage managed events to unveil its new handsets and devices. Don’t expect Apple to appear at MWC, although the timing of the event will roughly coincide with the one-year anniversary of the iPhone SE, so we may see rumours swirling around its successor in that timeframe.
Finder will be present at MWC 2017 reporting all the news as it happens, so stay tuned for the latest updates.
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by Alex Kidman
07 Dec 2016
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