This year’s Mobile World Congress looks like it’s going to be jam-packed with intriguing new devices headlined by Samsung’s Galaxy S5, Sony’s Xperia Z2, BlackBerry’s first Foxconn-made phones and Nokia’s first-ever Android handset. There is one major absence from this year’s MWC that is rather surprising, however: Windows Phone.
Re/code’s sources say that there won’t be any new Windows Phones launched at MWC next week and that Microsoft will only talk in “broad strokes” about what it has planned for future Windows Phone releases during its official press event. Microsoft is apparently saving its Windows Phone bullets for its Build developer conference in April when it will likely unveil its new Windows Phone 8.1 platform.
Even so, Re/code writes that the lack of any new devices at MWC is potentially problematic for Microsoft since MWC is typically where lesser-known players show off upcoming handsets that will be targeted at emerging markets. Vendors such as Huawei and ZTE all have a significant presence in China, for instance, and they’re all expected to show off Android phones. Even Nokia, which Microsoft is in the process of buying, will show off an Android phone at MWC instead of a new Windows Phone.
While 2014 still may very well be Windows Phone’s breakout year, the platform’s momentum seems to have stalled a bit in the early going this year.
