BARCELONA, Spain, Feb. 25 -- Chinese telecommunications giants ZTE, Huawei and Xiaomi displayed their brand new products at the 2019 Mobile World Congress (MWC2019), which opened Monday in the city of Barcelona in northeast Spain.
ZTE presented its new smartphone: the ZTE Axon 10 Pro 5G, one of a range of 5G compatible devices to be shown to the public for the first time at the event.
"We have been coming to the MWC for several years, but 2019 is the first year in which we are going to see 5G commercialized and we think we are going to be a key player in the sector," Li Qing, marketing manager from Chinese smartphone producers ZTE told Xinhua, adding "Innovations in 5G have been and will continue to be a very important strategy for our company."
Chinese companies Huawei and Xiaomi presented their proposals for 5G handsets on the eve of the MWC2019, with Huawei showcasing the Mate X and Xiaomi, their Mi Mix 3 5G.
However, MWC2019 is not just about smartphones, with 5G opening new possibilities for connected and autonomous cars and Artificial Intelligence (AI).
"I hope to see what the new trends are, especially in 5G, and this week will decide the business strategy that my company will take for the coming years," Bojan Pavlovic, Research and Development Director of software developing company, Ibis Instruments, told Xinhua.
"I have come here to see the challenges which the introduction of 5G offers to telecommunications providers and to try and identify the spaces in the market, so we can attempt to fill them," he added.
The four days of the MWC2019 also offer opportunities for networking, with numerous rooms set aside to visitors to find future business partners, while there is also a series of keynote speeches and conferences hosted by industry heavyweights aimed as helping decide the future of the mobile industry for 2019 and beyond.
"This is probably the most important conference in the world, in which we are going to see the next generation of technology. The products that are going to be used in society during the next 10 years are all here," industry expert Mike Murphy commented to Xinhua.
This is the 14th time for Barcelonia to host the event since the Mobile World Congress was moved to the city in 2006.
Around 110,000 people are expected to visit the MWC2019, which will last until Feb. 28, with 2,400 companies from 200 counties exhibiting under the banner "Intelligent Connectivity."