What to expect from MWC 2024

In a bit over the course of one week (February 26-29) around 85,000 attendees will descend on Fira de Barcelona for Mobile World Congress 2024. In recent years, the show has arguably become the most important mobile event of the year. Phone makers, telcos and various other technology vendors, journalists and analysts converge to discuss what the coming year holds for the industry.

Like any major in-person event, the last few years have been rough for MWC. In 2019, the show reached 109,000 visitors — not quite CES numbers (which hit ~175,000 that same year), but still an impressive turnout for what is ultimately a much more narrowly focused show. COVID hit the show hard for a few years (join the club).

After several major vendor withdrawals and weeks of handouts, the GSM Association (GMA) canceled the 2020 event. A significantly scaled-down version of the event took place the following year, with a limited entry limit. In 2022 it started a recovery to 60,000 participants, while last year it reached 88,500. Organizers expect a similar percentage for this year’s event. The number is still significantly lower than the height of the show, but MWC still qualifies as a big show.

However, it’s a bit more difficult to judge the show’s current level of importance to the industry. This is largely due to certain macroeconomic trends that have affected nearly every tech industry trade show. Even before the pandemic, big vendors had started migrating to their own stand-alone events, so as not to get lost in the noise. COVID only accelerated the trend as companies were forced to understand live streaming of events.

Some of the biggest names in the industry no longer have a significant presence. Take Samsung, which has taken it upon itself to announce its new flagships during the once slow weeks between CES and MWC. As we head into this year’s event, I’d love to tell you that—as with CES—small, exciting startups have rushed to fill that gap, but that’s not really the case. At least it’s nowhere near what we’ve seen since the Vegas event.

There’s a pretty decent startup presence at MWC, albeit in the form of its own sister event. 4FYN (that’s four years from now) is celebrating its tenth year in 2024. Let’s hope that translates into an exciting show. The event is organized by the same organization at the same venue. I think of it as the Mobile World Congress equivalent of CES’s Eureka Park: a big, cacophonous room full of startups. There are honestly worse ways to spend an afternoon at work.

For companies participating in the exhibition space and pitch-offs, it is an opportunity to gain an audience with the large and engaged MWC audience. For us, it’s an opportunity to check out smaller companies that might otherwise fly under the radar. The event is not exclusive to European startups, but they tend to dominate due to proximity. It’s a lot easier to travel to Spain than it is to fly across an ocean and a continent or two to hang out in the neon pit of despair that is Las Vegas, Nevada.

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Some of the trends I expect to dominate the conversation include the continued focus on health-centric wearables, including newer players like the smart ring. Worn shop windows have always had something of a show presence. It seems to be one of the biggest shows for the HTC Vive, for example. Following the release of Apple’s Vision Pro and Qualcomm’s commitment to AR and VR, I expect to hear a lot about this once the show gets underway.

MWC is also a fun show for concept devices. This is where Lenovo/Motorola shine. In fact, the more I think about it, the more I’m convinced that Lenovo has the most fun among the world’s major consumer electronics manufacturers. Expect everything to fold and/or slide. Some will be pure concepts, but Lenovo isn’t afraid to release some truly, delightfully weird things. There is even one “Transparent laptop” currently rumored for the event.

Speaking of rumors, Nothing’s mid-tier 2a device is pegged for a March 5 release (though apparently limited here in the US). Carl Pei’s old company, OnePlus, will also be present. Last year’s show found the company leaning towards its own line of prototype devices. This year, meanwhile, the OnePlus Watch 2 is rumored to be on the way.

More generally, expect AI everywhere at MWC, but be prepared to wade through the BS (don’t worry, we’re here to help). Samsung has broken the ‘birther AI smartphone seal with the Galaxy S24 series’ and now it’s going full force with apps that range from useful to ridiculous. I’m cautiously optimistic about the proliferation of AI devices in the mold of the Humane Pin and Rabbit R1. As with CES, I expect robots to have a moment to shine at the event, albeit mostly from European companies this time. There is also this issue Xiaomi car.

Above all, this is a big show for telecoms, and yes, the 6G talks have already started. Remember before the inevitable deluge, however, that we are still in the VERY early stages of development. No standard has been agreed upon, and we’re probably ~four years away from actually seeing compatible devices. However, advanced 5.5G/5G is largely a reality promoted by Chinese companies, in particular. Expect to hear a lot about that — and other things — from Huawei, which has spent the last several years slowly making a comeback after losing access to Google and Qualcomm products.

Also very real and likely to be very present at this year’s show is Wi-Fi, which succeeds Wi-Fi 6E as the latest wireless standard. TechCrunch will be live and present at MWC, too.