One of the biggest smartphones shows, Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2020, has been canceled due to coronavirus outbreak. The event was going to take place in Barcelona from February 24 to February 27, 2020.
The GSM Association took this decision after a video conference meeting with 26 mobile network representatives, including big names like Verizon, Vodafone, Telefonica, and Deutsche Telekom.
The GSMA represents around 750 operators and 400 brands that comprise of software manufacturers, smartphone makers, and internet companies.
GSMA CEO John Hoffman said in a statement that the MWC 2020 has been canceled due to the coronavirus outbreak.
The CEO said that travel and managing the event would be difficult at a time of global health emergency. He concluded his statement by stating that canceling MWC 2020 will also reduce the risk of disease outbreak in the host city Barcelona.
Reports by a Spanish daily El Pais reveal that GSMA’s video conference meeting was held after Deutsche Telekom and Nokia announced that they are not going to attend the event.
According to a report by Android Authority, big tech firms like Facebook, Vivo, LG, Amazon, and HMD Global have already decided to skip MWC 2020.
Smartphone makers launch new models every year in MWC. Now, the companies might launch their phones by organizing individual launch events.
Until now, 60,332 confirmed cases of coronavirus have been reported all over the world. The death toll due to coronavirus is 1369 at the time of writing. The outbreak has severely affected the working of several companies that have manufacturing plants in China.
Tesla’s Shanghai plant has been shut down temporarily and the production of Apple iPhones in China is also slowed down. Shipments of the Nintendo Switch have been delayed due to the coronavirus outbreak.
