After 2 Years of COVID, a Muted MWC Returns Amid New Crisis

With a mixture of trepidation and optimism following two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, large-scale in-person events are finally starting to happen again around the world. Among these is a mainstay of the tech calendar, MWC, which kicks off in Barcelona on Monday.

It's been a rough few years for the show. MWC 2020 was among the first major global events to be canceled due to the outbreak of the pandemic, and MWC 2021 was postponed. This year's show is going ahead amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Even the GSMA, the show's organizer, knows it may not be everyone's first priority. "In light of this emerging situation and considering the tragic loss of life, MWC seems immaterial under the circumstances," it said in a statement on Friday.

The GSMA also confirmed that there will be no Russian Pavilion at this year's show.

Mobile World Congress is the world's biggest mobile trade show, and historically has been a jamboree of exciting phone launches and next-generation tech. But perhaps more so than any other time in the past decade, this year's event is going to focus more heavily on network infrastructure and enterprise, than on being a vintage year for consumer devices. Expect small and steady steps moving the mobile industry forward, rather than the leaps and bounds we've seen take place at MWCs past.

"Beyond some hype on how 5G will enable the metaverse and cloud gaming, MWC will be a shadow of itself from a consumer perspective," said Forrester VP & Principal Analyst Thomas Husson. "While there might be some excitement with cool representations of physical stands in a virtual environment boosted through holographic telepresence, the latest summer collection of smartphones or other connected objects will not stand out."

This isn't to say that if you're in the market for a new device this year, there won't be any exciting options for you. But if you're looking for something to emerge that will revolutionize the mobile market, this may not be the year.

For starters, Samsung's big flagship launch of the Galaxy S22 series already happened. And though it'll host an event Sunday, Samsung likely won't show another high-profile phone this quickly. 

Then there's the fact that two of the biggest predicted trends of this year's show, foldables and 5G, are nothing new. According to an MWC Expectations Report from analysis firm CCS Insight, we're likely to see new foldable and rollable phones at MWC this year that are priced more affordably than models past. Likewise, the report predicts we'll see further discussion around the rollout of 5G that focuses on emerging use cases given that 5G networks are up and running.

"It does not appear that there will be one 'breakout' idea or concept that steals the headlines," the report said.

One emerging trend to keep an eye on is the metaverse, which might also be referred to as extended reality or spatial computing -- depending on which company is talking about it. Though CCS Insight doesn't expect any metaverse hardware to be unveiled at the show, it does foresee a number of announcements about how it'll be powered. 

MWC provides an opportunity for people making chips, working with 5G and playing around with virtual and augmented reality to get in a room together and talk. It'll likely be an important step in facilitating conversations about how they can work together to make metaverse magic happen.

But whatever happens, Husson isn't less optimistic. "This year, I'd expect MWC to go back to its B2B industrial roots," he said in a statement. "I'd expect the debate to be centered on how 5G relates to other key enabling technologies such as IoT, Edge computing, Analytics and AI, robotics and automation."