Mobile World Congress 2017: Next week's Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona will see plenty of new phones from big name players. Just not from Samsung.
| Mobile World Congress 2017:Get ready for the Royal Rumble of phones at MWC |
Just about every heavy hitter in the wireless industry is bringing a shiny new Phone to Mobile World Congress -- held this time each year in Spain's hippest metropolis -- each trying to out-wow the others with its latest wares.
But we won't see any new phones from Samsung. The Korean electronics giant will launch its newest tablets at the show, but plans to save its highly anticipated flagship Galaxy S8 smartphone for later this year.
The company's back-to-basics approach is a tacit admission that last year's G5, which went out on a limb with a modular system that allowed you to customize the phone with accessory parts, was a failure.
The G6 could end up as LG's redemption phone and has a high chance of taking the spotlight normally devoted to Samsung. That would be fitting considering LG last year tried to upstage Samsung by holding its press conference a few hours earlier. Samsung ended up blowing away the competition with its Galaxy S7 event, which featured Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a surprise cameo.
That decision creates a vacuum that, ironically, may make this one of the more competitive shows in recent years. Over the past few years, the world's largest phone maker used the conference to launch the latest iteration of its Galaxy S line of phones, pretty much keeping the spotlight to itself.
Not this time. Now, Samsung's cross-town rival LG is looking to move past last year's flop with its successor G6 phone. Meanwhile, former high-flying brands Nokia and BlackBerry are banking on nostalgia to grab attention. It all just underscores the fact that although Apple and Samsung dominate the market, consumers still have plenty of alternatives. The trick is to not come across as a bunch of also-rans.
"I don't know that it's necessarily an opportunity for someone else to stand out," said Jan Dawson, an analyst at Jackdaw Research. "In fact, it might just make everyone else seem unimportant by comparison."
So why all the effort? Regardless of how brutally competitive it is, the phone remains the remote control for your life. And for many companies, it's the gateway to get you to buy more of their products or services. That's why these companies keep falling over themselves to introduce new phones.
Here's a breakdown of what to expect starting this weekend.
LG's moment?
When LG "unveils" its G6 phone on Sunday, there will be few surprises. A steady stream of leaks, including from CNET, give a good impression of the device: a large display, a narrow frame, a water-resistant body, last-year's Qualcomm Snapdragon processor and a built-in (nonreplaceable) battery. Read More...
