Xiaomi won't attend Mobile World Congress 2017

Mobile World Congress (MWC), the biggest event in the industry, is scheduled to kick off on February 27 in Barcelona. As every year, all the major players will be there including Samsung and LG, which will announce its new flagship the G6. We were also expecting that Xiaomi will attend MWC, but it now looks like that isn’t going to happen. According to a report from TechCrunch, the Chinese manufacturer will skip this year’s event.

This is strange to hear, as Xiaomi announced the Mi 5 during Mobile World Congress 2016. The company was also present in Barcelona the year before, when Hugo Barra, who recently left his position at Xiaomi and will now head Facebook’s Virtual Reality team, took the stage and shared more information regarding the up-and-coming company with the public.

You’re probably wondering why exactly has Xiaomi decided to skip MWC 2017. The main reason might be that the company just doesn’t have any devices to announce in Barcelona and has therefore decided to stay away. This probably means that the upcoming Mi 6, which is rumored to make its debut soon, won’t see the light of day just yet. But this is just speculations for now, as Xiaomi hasn’t explained in detail why exactly it won’t be attending the show.

Xiaomi made a surprise appearance at CES earlier this month. When the company revealed it would attend the Las Vegas show, the general expectation was that the company would announce a full blown assault on the US market. Instead, we’ve got two devices that won’t even be made available in the States – a white version of the Mi Mix and an admittedly impressive new TV. With Hugo Barra out of the picture and a newfound appetite for restraint, it’s possible that Xiaomi is trying to slow down its international expansion in order to redirect resources to the ultra-competitive Chinese market.