Sony Ericsson, Samsung and Nokia hustle for your attention with concurrent pre-MWC events on 13 February

Sony Ericsson was first to announce it will hold a pre-MWC event on the 13 February this year. This is a somewhat strategic move to steal the spotlight before the MWC 2011 is even on. It was to be expected as they’ve been doing such pre-MWC events for at least three years now.

Last year Samsung joined in on the fun and held an event on the exact same date and time. And today, only a couple of weeks before the beginning of MWC 2011, Nokia decided to go the same route.

Yes, the Sunday evening of 13 February will be hot, in a geeky kind of way.

In regards to new product announcements, the Mobile World Congress 2011 is the most important event in the mobile industry, setting the pace for at least six months ahead. This time it takes place between 14-17 February (as usual in Barcelona, Spain) and in a bold move three major manufacturers announced they’ll be holding pre-MWC events at exactly the same date and time.

Now I remember witnessing a similar situation last autumn. HTC decided to hold an event on the last day of Nokia World 2010 in London. They even sent buses to pick interested journalists straight from the Nokia World venue. The Finns struck back giving away free HTC sandwiches to all those who stayed (HTC being “ham-tomato-cheese” in this case).

But while it was fun back then, now it’s not. This time all three manufacturers – Sony Ericsson, Samsung and Nokia – are holding their events the night before MWC starts at one and the same time and it would be bloody hard to cover all the three announcements from three different venues around the city.

I still can’t figure what’s the point in this overlap. It’s obvious Nokia wants to steal the spotlight from Samsung, which wants to steal the spotlight from Sony Ericsson, which wants to steal the spotlight of everyone else. But this way none of them is getting the press attention and coverage they deserve. It’s as if they are not trying to act in their best personal interest but are going out of their way to act to one another’s detriment instead.

I don’t really get it, but I guess it’s the same with TV channels and their prime-time shows, which are all aired in the same hour of day hustling for your remote’s attention.

Anyway, you can rest assured we’ll be there to report from all three events simultaneously. It might even turn out to be a good thing. I suggest next year all manufacturers jump the gun on 13 February so we can cover the whole thing in a day and spend the rest of the week enjoying the wonderful Barcelona.

Sounds like fun, doesn’t it?