It is not a good sign that a show seems to be losing steam its first day. Samsung was the opening salvo of Mobile World Congress. It spoke out about some partnerships, and teased an upcoming event in which it would launch hardware. It is difficult to not be down about the GSMA. I should also remind everyone that running an event in a normal year can be hard. It was heartbreaking to cancel its flagship event last year. Similarly, deciding to continue with the one this year must have been.There were some wins, it's not like. Is that what you mean? Elon Musk filmed it? This is a huge win by any standard, regardless of what you think about the man. You've probably heard of him and have strong opinions about him.The High Priest of Dogeking telegraphed in to discuss SpaceX StarLink. Musk stated in an interview that we are losing money right now on the terminal. The terminal is more expensive than $1,000 so I am subsidizing its cost.He also promised that a new version next year of the satellite company would be available, which will be much more powerful.Huawei has largely focused on networking and not consumer devices so it is important to note that MWC is a networking event, even though most of the media attention tends to be on consumer device launches. Huawei launched several 5G networking hardware products, including several MIMO devices.Talking of networks, I completely forgot to include this TechCrunch parent company bit (you know, for the moment). Verizon released a number of robots sporting 5G branding. Verizon was emphasizing the importance of cellular communications for robotics communication in the future.According to Reuters, Rima Qureshi (CSO), 5G will allow robots to communicate with each other and all types of devices in a way that was not possible before.Let's face it, robots are not the best stage fodder. According to my knowledge, the Boston Dynamics-esque quadruped I saw was actually this Ghost Robotics bot, which Verizon also displayed (well, it did itself out, I suppose) during CES in January.Would I have held an event in Barcelona in 2021 if given the option? Nuh-uh. Nuh-uh. It's impossible. The GSMA felt that they could choose whether to be financially responsible or not. This is a more difficult question. If your company is dependent on events and partners, cancelling one big event can be a major shock to the system.As the show progresses, I'm unsure if I will be continuing to do these roundups. If there is more interesting stuff, or if Elon hoverboards through the convention center halls, I will definitely be doing another roundup. I'm not going to hold my breath.
