In a little while Mobile World Congress 2024 will bring around 85,000 participants to Fira de Barcelona over the course of one week (February 26-29). Over the past few years, this show has become arguably the most important mobile event of the year. Mobile phone manufacturers, carriers, and various other technology vendors, journalists, and analysts come together to discuss what's going to happen to the industry next year.
Like other major in-person events, the past few years have been eventful for MWC. Attendance for the 2019 show reached 109,000, which wasn't close to CES's numbers (it reached about 175,000 that year), but still ultimately impressive for a fairly limited show. It was an amazing turnout. COVID-19 has hit the show hard for a few years now (join the club).
After the withdrawal of many major vendors and weeks of anguish, the GSM Association (GMA) has canceled its 2020 event. A much scaled down version of the event was held the following year, with strict restrictions placed on participants. In 2022, the number of participants will begin to recover to 60,000, and last year it reached 88,500. Organizers are expecting similar numbers for this year's event. While that number is still significantly down compared to the show's heyday, MWC still qualifies as a massive show.
However, it's a little difficult to determine the show's current level of importance to the industry. This is due in no small part to several macro trends that have impacted nearly every technology industry trade show. Even before the pandemic, major vendors had begun moving to their own standalone events to avoid getting lost in the noise. COVID-19 only accelerated this trend, as companies were forced to consider streaming live events.
Some of the biggest players in the industry no longer have a significant presence. Take Samsung, for example, which has embarked on a new flagship product launch in the once quiet weeks between CES and MWC. As we head into this year's event, we'd like to tell you that, similar to CES, small, attractive startups will be rushing to fill the void, but that's just not the case. At least, nowhere near the extent seen at the Las Vegas event.
Although MWC has its own sister event format, startups have a strong presence. 4FYN (Four Years From Now) will celebrate its 10th anniversary in 2024. I hope it's an exciting show. The event will be run by the same organization at the same venue. I've come to think of it as the Mobile World Congress equivalent of CES's Eureka Park: a big, cacophonous room full of startups. Honestly, there are worse ways to spend an afternoon at work.
For companies attending the show floor or pitchoff, it's a chance to meet MWC's large, enthusiastic audience. For us, this is an opportunity to check out small businesses that might otherwise have gone under the radar. Although this event is not exclusive to European startups, European startups tend to have an advantage due to proximity. It's much easier to cross into Spain than it is to hop on a plane across an ocean or a continent or two to spend time in a neon hole of despair like Las Vegas, Nevada.
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Trends that I expect to dominate the conversation include a continued focus on health-centric wearables, including new form factors like smart rings. Headworn displays have always had some presence at shows. For example, this appears to be one of the biggest HTC Vive exhibitions. Following Apple's Vision Pro announcement and Qualcomm's efforts in AR and VR, I think we'll be talking a lot about this once the show starts.
MWC is also a fun show of concept devices. This is Lenovo/Motorola's strength. In fact, the more I think about it, the more I'm convinced that Lenovo is having the most fun out of all the major home appliance manufacturers in the world. Expect everything to fold or slide out. Some are pure concepts, but Lenovo isn't afraid to release something really fun and weird. It is currently rumored that a “transparent laptop” will also appear at the event.
Speaking of rumors, Nothing's mid-tier 2a device is set to be released on March 5th (although it's obviously limited here in the US). Karl Pei's former club OnePlus will also be participating. Last year's show showed the company leaning into its own line of concept devices. Meanwhile, it is rumored that OnePlus is preparing to release the Watch 2 this year.
More broadly, expect AI everywhere at MWC, but be prepared to cut through the BS (don't worry, we're here to help). With the Galaxy S24 series, Samsung is breaking the “generative AI smartphone seal'' and coming out fully formed with applications ranging from the useful to the outrageous. I'm cautiously optimistic about the proliferation of AI devices like Humane Pin and Rabbit R1. As with CES, we hope that robots will have their moment to shine at this event, although this time it will mainly be from European companies. There is also the problem of Xiaomi cars.
Above all, this is a big show for carriers, and discussions about 6G have already begun. However, remember that we are still in the very early stages of development before the inevitable deluge. No standards have been agreed upon yet, and it will likely be four years before compatible devices actually appear. But 5.5G/5G Advanced is very real, especially being promoted by Chinese companies. Huawei has been slowly rebuilding itself over the past few years after losing access to Google and his Qualcomm products, but you'll likely hear a lot about this and more.
Also very real and likely to be a big presence at this year's show is Wi-Fi, the latest wireless standard to replace Wi-Fi 6E. TechCrunch will also be attending his MWC live.