More cancellations for world’s largest smartphone fair due to coronavirus

More and more companies decide not to go to the biggest smartphone fair in the world for fear of the coronavirus. The giants Sony and Amazon are the last ones to sign up for the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, later this month.

Sony would present a new Xperia smartphone in Barcelona. This is now happening via YouTube, on 24 February, the Japanese announced on Monday. Amazon had already signed out for the fair on Sunday. The company wanted to show its cloud department, Amazon Web Services, to the world.

South Korean electronics manufacturer LG, Swedish 5G developer Ericsson, and American chipmaker Nvidia had already announced that they would skip the stock market for a year.

Not welcome

The Mobile World Congress itself will continue as usual. But people from the city of Wuhan and the surrounding area, where the outbreak began and is still raging, are not welcome. People from the rest of China must prove that they have not been to China in the two weeks before the congress. The temperature is measured for visitors.

Chinese companies such as Samsung, Huawei, Nokia, Oppo, Vivo, Xiaomi, and ZTE are going to the congress. Although additional measures will be taken to suppress the anxiety. The mayor of Barcelona does not want the stock exchange to be canceled and the Spanish foreign minister Arancha Gonzalez also calls for calm. There are currently only two cases of coronavirus confirmed in Spain: one in the Canary Islands and one in Mallorca.

The Mobile World Congress attracts more than 110,000 visitors each year, including around 5,000 to 6,000 Chinese, and is very important for large companies. For example, the Chinese Huawei in Barcelona last year unveiled its first foldable phone, the Mate X. This year, the congress will focus on 5G internet, artificial intelligence, smart devices, and big data. The fair in Barcelona takes place from 24 to 27 February.