Hilary Giorgi

Samsung Won’t Be Physically Present at MWC 2021

Once a very representative event in the industry, Mobile World Congress suffers from participants dropping out in 2021. According to the statement issued by Samsung, the company will not be present in person on the event, in order not to risk its employees’, partners’, and customers’ health. Even despite the undoubtable success made in anti-COVID research and prevention, the company won’t risk it.

There may be other concerns as well. Samsung is not the only one who refused to participate in the offline part of MWC 2021. The list includes names like Google, Sony, Ericsson, Oracle, Nokia and others. The less major players remain, the less representative the event becomes, so the less sense it makes for others to show up.

Will it lead to cancellation of the entire event, like it was in 2020? Not sure. This year MWC that usually takes place in February or March was moved several months back to guarantee the preparations work out right. As we see, some disagree. So what’s better: a congress of B-brands, or no congress at all? Maybe there is another alternative, like going 100% online, and for Samsung (as well as others) this is the way to get back to the event. But will this event be worth this at all, while each participant can have it alone?