Samsung won’t have a physical presence at MWC 2021 in Barcelona. “The health and safety of our employees, partners and customers is our number one priority, so we have made the decision to withdraw from exhibiting in-person at this year’s Mobile World Congress,” a Samsung spokesman said in an emailed statement on Tuesday.
In spite of the GSMA’s optimism, a number of big tech companies announced starting in March that they won’t be attending the show in Barcelona in person this year. Google, which tends to have a large presence through its Android business, was the most recent major exhibitor to bow out of the in-person portion of MWC. It joined Ericsson, Sony, Nokia and Facebook, which were among the first to say they wouldn’t be heading to Barcelona.
“Following our current COVID-19 travel restrictions and protocols, Google has made the decision to not exhibit at Mobile World Congress this year,” the company said in a statement. It added that it will still participate virtually.
“Of course we respect that planning in a pandemic is complicated. Samsung will adapt their presence to virtual for MWC21 and we look forward to seeing them in person 2022,” a spokesperson for the GSMA told Engadget. The organization also pointed us to a press release it published last week that details some of the programming it has planned for MWC 2021. Last year, the GSMA ended up canceling MWC 2020 after several major exhibitors, including Samsung, Sony and LG dropped out of the event in the days leading up to it.
