MWC 2023: Another Chance To Explore The Dazzles Of Smartphones

For all lovers of smartphones and other telecom devices and gizmos in the smart category, it is another occasion to explore the dazzles of these devices at Barcelona's MWC 2023.

It's on record that network and enterprise have long played a key part in Barcelona’s big mobile show, but more than ever, such topics are going to have an outsized role at the event.

The consumer element appears to be taking an increasingly back seat at the event, which kicks off in earnest next Monday.

Of a truth, Mobile World Congress (MWC) was never a consumer tech show, per se, but the participation of various smartphone makers transformed it into a handy launching pad.

CES (held back in January) is the place where every other category, from smart home and wearables to automotive and robotics, gets their time to shine, while MWC happily adopted the monitor of the big smartphone show.

This year, the GSMA expects 75,000 attendees. That is a modest figure, compared to the halcyon days but still, a lot of people stick in the Fira convention centre in 2023.

There are big names on the exhibitor list, including Samsung, Oppo/OnePlus, Huawei, and Xiaomi.

Some, including Samsung and OnePlus, just released new flagships, so don’t expect many fireworks there.

Though the latter has already teased a “concept” device — results will vary on whether that rises to the definition of “news.”

Similarly, Qualcomm did its standard move of announcing the new flagship Snapdragon chip at its conference in Hawaii last year.

We are likely months away from the half-year refresh, though the company always seems to have some chip or other up its sleeve.

Many will, however, expect news from a number of the top Chinese manufacturers, including the aforementioned Xiaomi, ZTE, and Huawei budget offshoot, Honor.

Other notable exhibitors include Nokia IP licenser HMD and HTC, which has effectively shifted all of its eggs into the Vive VR basket.

VR/AR/MR/XR is an interesting one, of course. Probably not a huge presence outside of HTC, but everyone is seemingly contractually obligated to do something in the space these days.

That said, Meta/Facebook and Sony won’t have a presence at this year’s show. Lenovo will, though.  

The company habitually releases a lot of devices at the shows it attends, and its subsidiary, Motorola, also seems to have something new on the horizon.

Looking at the speaker agenda, climate impact will (thankfully) be a topic.

Lots of people seem to still be talking about the metaverse, for what that’s worth.

The GSMA has also pivoted a lot of resources to sports for some reason, while Microsoft is readying a couple of talks about the cloud.

AI doesn’t monopolize as much stage time as you might expect, and most of the smart home talk revolves around the introduction of Matter.

There’s also a panel featuring speakers from Samsung, ZTE, and the European Space Agency titled “Ready to Talk 6G?” It’s a question that I frankly don’t know how to answer.