In less than three weeks, the collective eyes of the tech enterprise will go to Barcelona for the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2020, the most important and most essential trade display within the world of cellular communications. More than 100,000 participants from nearly two hundred countries are anticipated to attend each year. MWC, unlike CES in previous events, still regularly manages to entice famous manufacturers into pronouncing their most important devices at the show.
Things could be a bit different this year. The outbreak of the coronavirus in China and subsequent unfold to different international locations victimized thousands of lives. Coronavirus has additionally been disrupting supply chains essential to the development of smartphones, and wreaking journey havoc in Asia, where most of MWC's marquee exhibitors are based; many countries are limiting flights to and from China. LG and ZTE have already canceled a few plans for the display.
Most Chinese tech companies are nevertheless planning to attend
MWC 2020 would feature an even larger Chinese contingent than ever before, with all the country's powerful smartphone brands making plans a significant presence. As of today, that appears not to be the case.
Xiaomi, Vivo, and Honor all told The Verge that they stay plan on attending. Qualcomm, Lenovo, and Motorola additionally plan to push through for MWC.
Huawei is also still planning to make announcements at the show despite canceling its latest Shenzhen developer conference. However, sources familiar with the situation say Huawei is likely to remove individual events and significantly lessen the range of employees who need to travel.
Meanwhile, LG withdraws from MWC, citing the safety of its personnel and [the] general public. The South Korean electronics company added it wanted to "needlessly prevent exposing its LG personnel to international travel, which most health professionals have advised."
ZTE, meanwhile, said it changed into canceling its press conference because it tends to be "a very courteous company and simply [doesn't] want to make humans uncomfortable."
'The show must go on,' says organizer
The GSM Association (GSMA), which organizes MWC, remains to be business as usual in Barcelona. GSMA is an industry trade organization that represents more than 1,200 organizations throughout the mobile ecosystem, and MWC is the threat for heaps to accumulate partnerships, deals, and product launches for the international press.
The show, according to GSMA, spent €492 million or almost $541 million this year and additionally generated 14,000 part-time jobs. GSMA said there is minimal impact on the occasion yet. The organization said MWC Barcelona would proceed as planned in all venues on Feb. 24 to 27.
The GSMA says it will likely be growing medical support and disinfection measures on the website online and communicating high-quality practices to attendees. Speakers are subjected to a new microphone changing the protocol. A "no-handshake policy" is likewise being recommended for all at the show, though that sounds impractical to enforce.
Regardless of reassurances from the organizers and exhibitors, it seems inevitable that the coronavirus could affect MWC. Cases were surging in the latest days, with no sign of the spread of the virus slowing down. Several countries are already advising people to stay away from public gatherings, not to mention events wherein tens of heaps of attendees are flying around the sector to accumulate shoulder-to-shoulder in the same rooms.
