Every year, GSMA organizes a trade show for the mobile communications industry called Mobile World Congress or MWC. It is usually held in Feb. or Mar. in Barcelona in Spain. This year, the organizer canceled the MWC 2020 because of concerns over the deadly novel coronavirus outbreak.
Coronavirus Threat
A few days ago, several exhibitors to this year's MWC started pulling out. Most of the reasons are concerns over the threat of the coronavirus outbreak, which started in Wuhan in China. GSM Association CEO John Hoffman said that the coronavirus outbreak makes it impossible to hold the event.
Hoffman also mentioned other concerns such as travel issues, which go back to the global concern of the lethal virus. GSMA Ceo said that they are still working in collaboration with other parties for next year's MWC. The Mobile World Congress was supposedly scheduled between Feb. 24 and Feb. 27, 2020.
MWC 2020 was set to highlight the presence of Chinese smartphone makers. It was also anticipated to feature all the major smartphone brands in the industry. LG backed out of the MWC earlier in Feb., while ZTE pulled out the scheduled press conference because of fear of coronavirus.
Before Intel, Nvidia, Sony, Vivo, NTT Docomo, and Amazon pulled out of the Mobile World Congress, Ericsson already canceled its participation. Just this week, HMD, BT, Nokia, and Cisco also canceled their appearances. Many firms have been very anxious about the health crisis; some chose to pull out to assess the risk for their staff.
Other companies scaled back their presence in this year's MWC. For instance, Huawei earlier said that it would have a European staff go to Barcelona for the event to represent the company.
Importance of MWC
The Mobile World Congress is crucial to the mobile industry because of a couple of reasons. The trade event is a platform where vendors showcase their latest products and devices. It is the place where companies get attention from potential customers.
Additionally, it is the event where deals are ironed out behind the scenes. It includes getting carriers to ink a deal to offer the products from small companies. Moreover, the GSMA, the team behind the MWC, is a trade body that represents over 1,200 companies all over the mobile industry.
The Mobile World Congress is a chance for many businesses to assemble for deals, collaborations, partnerships, and product launches. According to The Verge, the MWC has the most significant economic impact. It generates 14,100 part-time jobs and rakes around 492 million euros.
