Newsletter
Samsung recently announced it won’t attend MWC 2021, well, not in person. Lenovo has just done the same, as the company doesn’t plan to be in attendance at MWC 2021 in Barcelona. The reason for it… the pandemic, of course.
As most of you know by now, the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2021 was moved to late June because of COVID-19. It usually takes place at the end of February. This year, it will officially begin on June 28, and end on July 1.
Lenovo announced it won’t physically attend MWC 2021, only virtually
That being said, Lenovo announced that it won’t attend MWC 2021 in person, but it will be there virtually. As the company officially said, it will “participate in the virtual partner program”.
Just to clarify, Samsung and Lenovo are not the first two tech giants to cancel their participation, at least non-virtual participation. Google, Nokia, Sony, Ericsson, Oracle, and IBM did the same not long ago.
It is highly unlikely that MWC 2021 won’t happen, as last year’s iteration didn’t. MWC 2020 was cancelled altogether due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but GSMA seems confident this year’s tradeshow will happen, one way or the other.
Quite a few companies have cancelled their attendance already
Quite a few companies announced they won’t be coming, and it’s not the same to be there virtually, of course. GSMA will likely do everything it can to make MWC 2021 happen, but without so many huge companies in attendance (physical one), it won’t be the same. It won’t be even close.
We’ll see what will happen in the end, as anything is possible, of course. The whole point of such a tradeshow is for people to be able to come and see what is on offer, and actually try out some products, see some new tech in action.
If that technology is not there to be presented, well, that kind of defeats the purpose, doesn’t it. MWC is the largest tech tradeshow in the world, and it was a real shame last year’s event didn’t occur. We do hope this year’s will take place, but only if it’s safe enough to do so. Let’s hope GSMA will figure out a way, despite the fact more and more companies are cancelling their physical attendance.