The world's biggest mobile brands will jostle for the spotlight at the premier mobile industry event this week in Spain, but away from the glitzy displays chip makers will be preoccupied with China, the largest mobile market on the planet.
From Qualcomm and Intel to MediaTek, Marvell and Broadcom, the suppliers of the crucial components that power smartphone applications and drive high-speed wireless connections are scrambling to capitalize on opportunities taking shape as Chinese brands and telecoms carriers such as China Mobile gear up for 4G LTE, or Long-Term Evolution.
China's move to LTE, a standard now adopted mostly in the US, gives Intel and other chip makers a unique chance to knock dominant LTE chip supplier Qualcomm off its perch.
The Mobile World Congress, from Monday to Thursday, will be a pivotal battleground.
With more Chinese companies than ever showing up in Spain - 99 exhibitors from China this year, up from 70 last year - the event presents an opportunity for chip makers to show off their best products.
Companies including Intel and Qualcomm will debut new and upcoming LTE-oriented microprocessors in Barcelona.
Many are designed to consume less power and will be priced lower than previous cutting-edge components, making them ideal for mid-range and cheaper phones popular in China and other emerging markets.
That focus will be pervasive across the exhibition floor.
Qualcomm has created a Chinese version of a Mobile World Congress smartphone app for the event and has posted translations of signs around its display area. It's even sending pre-show e-mails in Chinese directed at Chinese visitors.
"We're going to have a lot of demos targeted at China, a lot of demos on LTE," said executive vice president Cristiano Amon. "Qualcomm looks at the opportunity of LTE and the smartphone migration in emerging markets as a very big opportunity."
Taiwan-headquartered MediaTek, little known in the US despite being the top smartphone chip player in the vast Chinese market, is launching a branding campaign aimed at the event's 75,000 attendees, with ads prominently displayed at the airport, convention center and other areas around the city.
Billboard ads showing content smartphone users across a range of ethnicities underscore MediaTek's plan to leverage its low-cost business model to become a more global player and compete further against Qualcomm.
