It’s no secret that Samsung will be releasing its Galaxy S9. (What else is it going to call its next phone?)
The promotional teases have all focused on the camera, which is a smart bet given how much we care about selfies now. The question is whether Samsung will be able to get consumers excited about a phone that doesn’t appear to have many significant physical changes.
But hey, if it works for Apple, why not Samsung?
To monopolize the spotlight, Samsung will hold its unveiling on Sunday, a day before the conference starts.
Nokia was the darling of MWC 2017 thanks in large part to the return of the classic Nokia 3310. Finnish startup HMD, which is stocked with former Nokia executives and has licensed the brand, will have to work hard to repeat the magic from last year.
“This is where Nokia 2.0 made its debut and comeback, and volumes so far show that its phones are very much in demand,” said Ramon Llamas, an analyst at research firm IDC.
Could we see another retro comeback? And will it once again overshadow the products its maker actually wants people to buy?
One of the underlying themes over the last two months has been the increasingly vocal US government opposition to Chinese phone manufacturers Huawei and ZTE. Huawei was widely expected to announce in its CES keynote last month that AT&T would be its partner in selling its flagship Mate 10 Pro, but that never happened.
Other companies like Sony, ZTE and Alcatel will likely show up with new phones, but there’s little expectation that any of these companies will magically upstage Samsung. (Or even Nokia, for that matter.)
Some of the products may not even be phones. Ian Fogg, an analyst at IHS Markit, believes companies will start looking at different categories again. And we’ll likely come across some at MWC.
“This year we’ll see product launches in the larger device category — the tablet and particularly the connected PC category,” he said.
And then there’s Google. No, you won’t see any new Pixel phones at the show, but there will almost certainly be collectible pins and other Android swag.