MWC 2014: TechWeek Readers Like Nokia Phones… That Run Android

In the last few days, we’ve seen more major mobile announcements than during the rest of the year combined, and that can only mean one thing – it’s Mobile World Congress (MWC) time.

Ahead of the industry event in Barcelona, we asked our readers what MWC news they were excited about the most – was it the much-anticipated Samsung Galaxy 5S smartphone, hipster bling smartwatches, or the unholy union of Nokia and Android?

We heard from 263 of you, and it looks like Nokia’s adoption of a rival operating system piqued your interest – maybe enough to bolster the company’s image ahead of its sale to Microsoft, or at least created some buzz around new devices which should help sales.

Most Wonderful Congress

MWC 2014 offers more keynotes, seminars and product launches than you can shake a mobile phone at. This year’s event has already exceeded expectations – with the launch of the new generation of Samsung’s best-selling Galaxy smartphone, the long-rumoured Nokia device based on Google’s Android OS, and even a new version of the Russian-made YotaPhone.

New kids on the block Jolla and Tizen are keen to make a good impression, along with other open source phone contenders Firefox OS and Ubuntu.

There are also smartwatches, hundreds of them, being showcased at every corner of the Fira Gran Via exhibition hall. Look under the covers and hardware guys like Intel, Cisco and Qualcomm are here, offering new chips and new network kit.

According to our readers, Nokia’s new range of affordable smartphones is the most important thing to happen at MWC this year – 25.5 percent of respondents say they were eager for the launch of what was previously called “Normandy”, and turned out to be three phones: the four-inch Nokia X, slightly superior Nokia X+ and the five-inch Nokia XL, which all run a forked version of Android and come preloaded with Nokia’s app store and Microsoft services.

The Samsung Galaxy S5 was top of the MWC agenda for 23.2 percent of readers – this smartphone with a 5.1-inch screen is waterproof and shock resistant, and takes a cue from the competition, featuring a fingerprint scanner. It is still dressed in plastic though – something that can alienate users who are looking for a more ‘premium’ product.

Almost fifteen percent of our readers are not weary of the wearable technology hype, and want to see more smartwatches – and following MWC, they will be spoilt for choice. The fate of Motorola, the US company which has changed hands twice in the past two years, and is now heading to ownership by China’s Lenovo concerns 11.4 percent of respondents.

The next version of of the HTC One, the Taiwanese company’s flagship, interests another 11.4 percent of our readers, but was notably absent from MWC. Instead, we got the launch of two new mid-range devices in the Desire range – HTC fans must wait till 25 March to find out about what is being called the “HTC One 2”.

TechWeek readers prefer gadgets to celebrities: James Corden, who is set to present the Global Mobile Awards (that’s quite a change of direction from hosting the Brits) is the main MWC talking point for only 7.6 percent of our audience. That still puts him ahead of Tizen, the open source competitor to Android which powers Samsung’s new smartwatches, which only tickled the fancy of six percent of readers.

TechWeek has been reporting from MWC since Sunday, covering all the latest developments in mobile technology.

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