Mobile World Congress (MWC) is one of the biggest tech events, however, due to health risks associated with the spread of coronavirus, a lot of compes are backing out.
MWC 2020 is scheduled from February 24-27 in Barcelona, Spain. Earlier this month, a second case of the virus was confirmed in the country, prompting a number of technology compes to withdraw over the potential risk to employees. Here's a list of the compes which will not be participating or exhibiting at the event:
1.NVIDIA - Chipmaker NVIDIA confirmed its total absence from MWC 2020 last week. The company planned on making announcements related to AI, 5G, and vRAN.
2. Sony- Sony has decided to withdraw completely from exhibiting and participating at MWC 2020. The company will instead host a press conference announcing its new products which will be broadcast live on February 24, 2020, on the company's official Xperia YouTube channel.
3. LG - LG withdrew from MWC 2020 as well as Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) 2020, the world's largest AV and systems integration show. Instead of exhibiting and participating at MWC 2020, LG will hold separate events to announce its new mobile products.
4. Ericsson- One of the first compes to pull out of MWC 2020, Ericsson will showcase demos and content which was created for the event to customers in home markets with local events, called 'Ericsson Unboxed'.
5. Amazon- e-commerce giant Amazon too is ditching the event over coronavirus risk. The company planned on hosting a conference on its cloud services arm Amazon Web Services (AWS).
6. Intel- Another big chipmaker to skip MWC 2020 is Intel which told Cnet in an emailed statement that it is withdrawing 'out of an abundance of caution'.
7. MediaTek- The latest to skip MWC is MediaTek. The chipmaker announced in an emailed statement to media outlets that it will look at other ways to announce its progress in 5G and related breakthroughs.
8. Vivo - The Vivo Apex Concept 2020 was expected to make its debut at the MWC 2020, but with the company's absence from the show, it seems another live-streamed event could be on the cards.
In addition to these, ZTE and TCL have also cancelled their press conferences, but will still exhibit at the show. As MWC 2020 approaches, more cancellations or scale backs are expected. Meanwhile, GSMA, the event's orgsing body is taking enhanced health measures to alleviate concerns.
( With inputs from ANI )