Mobile World Congress, the global trade show focused primarily around mobile phones and tablets, kicks off at the end of February. We'll have our boots on the ground bringing you the latest news from Nokia, Samsung, Asus, HTC and dozens of other firms. Plenty of those firms are expected to take the world by storm with the latest high-end Android and Windows Phone smartphones and tablets, which raises a question: do you think Apple will make an announcement to make those efforts seem fruitless?
It's not unheard of. In fact, last year Apple sent out invites for its iPad event in March during the second day of the show. Last year I borrowed a phrase from my Grandfather's tenure at E.F. Hutton, but changed it up a bit: when Apple talks, people listen. Suddenly, while most of the mobile reporting world was in Barcelona, Apple took the wind out of the show's sails by announcing its own event.
Apple's stock took a bit of a hit on Jan. 23 after the company failed to meet Wall Street estimates for the first quarter of this year. Some pundits and analysts wondered if perhaps Apple had lost its magic (we don't think it has) and whether it can continue to keep up with smartphone powerhouses such as Samsung. It might make sense for the company to attempt to steal the show yet again, and to show analysts that it does, indeed, have plenty of additional products coming down the pipeline.
My best guess is that we'll hear something from Apple during Mobile World Congress. It's possible that invites for a new iPad event in March will go out yet again, but we also might see news in the form of carefully planted leaks in the world's top news outlets. We can't underestimate Apple and, even though most of us will have our eyes on other mobile companies during the end of February, Apple isn't going to let us forget that it's the top dog in the U.S.
