source: http://mwc2011.techradar.com/2011/01...hat-to-expect/


After the sheer madness and reams of shiny gadgets of CES 2011, we barely have time to pause for breath before the annual mobile phone-a-thon of Mobile World Congress 2011 is upon us.

While CES saw a near-record number of top end mobile phones released from the Las Vegas jamboree, MWC 2011 still promises to be the place to see all manner of new handsets and tablets.

So we’ve trekked across the digital rumour-space and looked for all the info on what to expect from the Barcelona event – keep coming back as we’ll be constantly updating it whenever some new morsel of info or spy shot comes into view.

Microsoft

Last year we saw Microsoft unleash Windows Phone 7 officially onto the world in a Barcelona hotel, with Steve Ballmer calling the announcement a ‘mile post’ in the launch of the company’s new OS.

Well, the launch has happened and the fanfares have died down – but that doesn’t mean Microsoft won’t have something up its sleeve for the Barcelona show, with a ‘big update’ apparently being detailed to offer some new features for the burgeoning OS.

On January 18th, Microsoft revealed some of the features we can expect to see in the first WP7 update, with the timing suggesting a possible Mobile World Congress release.

LG

LG used CES to good effect when it showed off the world’s first dual-core smartphone, the LG Optimus 2X, as well as one of the slimmest with the Optimus Black.

However, the much-vaunted LG Android tablet (possibly the Optimus Pad) wasn’t shown – although the re-badged T-Mobile G-Slate was, and was subsequently announced – so it’s possible we could see that shown off in full glory. The latest whispers point to 3D recording and playback on the device.

We reckon there’s more to come from the Korean firm too, possibly in the mid-range and another high-end handset, so stay tuned for that press conference.

Unable to wait any longer, LG announced the LG Optimus 3D on 1 February, promising that we could get our greasy little mitts on it at the show.



Motorola

Motorola is traditionally more active at CES than MWC, which may be the case this year as it released the world’s most powerful mobile phone with the Motorola Atrix, and stole the tablet show with the Android 3.0-powered dual-core Motorola Xoom.

However, we don’t think the phoenix firm is all done just yet with its renaissance trail in the early part of 2011, so expect to hear a glut of new rumours in the near future.

Samsung

Samsung has been oddly quiet for a while (apart from the Nexus S, which is manufactured for Google) which means that we’re likely to see a lot from the firm.

The main handset is the Samsung Galaxy S2, which will likely be a rebadged (and possibly dual core) Nexus S – but also something about its own Bada OS and other mid-range phones is exceedingly likely.

On January 19th, the company launched a teaser website promising the ‘evolution’ of the Samsung Galaxy S, adding fuel to the S2 fire. Later, the codename Seine and full HD video were seemingly unveiled in yet another leak.

Further teasers were released on 1 February, revealing a fuzzy outline of the handset ahead of the official launch on 13 Feb at the show.

Its excitement proving impossible to contain, Samsung announced its four mid-range handsets on 26 January, including the much-rumoured Samsung Galaxy Ace (which subsequently got the video treatment).

Also announced and set to be shown-off in Barcelona are the pint-sized Galaxy Mini, the Galaxy Fit and the Galaxy Gio (Italian for ‘jewel’, apparently).

On the tablet front, we’re likely to see something dual-core from Samsung at Mobile World Congress; a leaked slide on 27 January seemed to confirm that we’ll see the follow up to the Galaxy Tab at the show too.

Nokia

Nokia is still fresh from its own Nokia World conference in September, where it launched the E7 and C7 handsets, but we should see some more from the Finnish firm at MWC, despite announcing nothing last year bar MeeGo.

However, we’re already hearing rumblings of the new E6-00 as well as already spotting some MeeGo-powered smartphones at the tail end of last year… expect to see more from that story in the near future.

The near-future being 2 February, in when a leaked MeeGo bug report revealed some potential Nokia superphone specs.

MeeGo could also be making its way to a tablet device – mysterious spy shots leaked in January which could end up being a MeeGo tablet unveiled at the show.

Sony Ericsson

Is the joint venture finished after the Xperia Arc? Far from it – we predict big things from Sony Ericsson at Mobile World Congress.

The first is the PSP Phone or the Xperia Play – it’s been so often leaked it’s practically boring now, so Sony Ericsson needs to announce it already.

We pre-empted the announcement with a sneaky hands on Xperia Play review in late January, although we’re looking forward to finding out what games will be available.

A Vivaz reboot, under the codename of Hallon, has been tipped to TechRadar as appearing in the near future. And so it will, as we broke the news of its official name, Sony Ericsson Neo, on 30 January.

The X10 Mini Pro looks set for a refresh if Chinese pictures are to be believed.



HTC

Ah, HTC. Often the headline grabbers of MWC, this year it needs to go some way to manage that feat again.

The HTC Scribe, the company’s first proper tablet (or could it be the HTC Flyer?), looks very likely. Adding fuel to the speculation fire, apparent specs for the HTC Flyer tablet were leaked on 26 January. Could we also see a tablet version of the popular Sense Android UI unveiled as HTC Sensation?

We’re sure some high-end phones will be announced as per usual; we hope for a Desire and Desire HD refresh, as well as something to reboot the beautiful-but-overlooked HTC Legend – but surprisingly for the Taiwanese firm, leaks have been scarce this close to launch.

Scarce until 26 January, that is, when news of an official partnership with Facebook leaked, along with rumours that HTC will be revealing two Facebook-branded smartphones at the show. And then, on 27 January, Facebook denied the rumours, saying HTC was simply using Facebook’s APIs in “an interesting way.” We shall see.

An HTC Desire 2 was also spotted and snapped on the Taiwanese metro system, thanks to a keen eyed commuter.

Google

Google needs to show of a little bit more of Honeycomb (Android 3.0) in the near future, as we didn’t get nearly enough from the search giant at CES.

Whether Eric Schmidt’s on-stage talk will reveal anything or a handful of tablets dotted around will do the job, the fact Google is releasing the Honeycomb SDK later this month means we should see a lot more in the near future.

RIM

RIM is traditionally quite quiet at MWC, although it will still have a presence this year.

This means that we should get some more time with the BlackBerry PlayBook, and hopefully some clue about the mysterious battery life – is it going to be as poor as some people are suggesting?

Since what looks like RIM’s entire BlackBerry line-up for the year was recently leaked (the BlackBerry Curve Apollo, BlackBerry Dakota, BlackBerry Storm 3 and BlackBerry Torch 2 all made an appearance), RIM could also take the opportunity to make some or all of these handsets official.

Palm/HP

Palm is dead, long live Palm! That’s what HP is hoping for the brand, and the much-rumoured WebOS -powered PalmPad (Hurricane) HAS to step into the light soon, as the parent company will be desperate to see a return on its substantial investment.

The first pictures of the PalmPad emerged in late January, but HP is promising that more will be revealed on 9 February.

And given the smartphone line is still alive inside HP Island, we’d hope that more devices will turn up soon too – where better than Mobile World Congress 2011?

Qualcomm

Having quietly shown off its dual-core Snapdragon processors at CES, Qualcomm should be shedding a little more light on its super-charged 1.2GHz CPUs in Barcelona.

Nvidia

After a presentation slide leaked on 24 January, we’re fully expecting Nvidia to whip the curtain off its Tegra 2 3D processors at the show, both an AP25 version for smartphones and a T25 version for tablets

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