What if Android doesn’t show up at Mobile World Congress?

Next week is one of the biggest events of the year for enthusiasts of mobile technology. Mobile World Congress (sometimes called MWC) is the largest trade mobile technology trade  show, and is held in Barcelona every February. Most handset manufacturers make their big announcements at or Just before Mobile World Congress. The mobile enthusiast community is abuzz this year with speculation about all the new Android announcements that are thought to be coming at MWC, but what if Android doesn’t Show up?

Samsung has already announced that they won’t be showing any Android based devices next week in Barcelona (or anywhere else), instead saying the announcement will now be made sometime around the second half of 2009. Besides the T-Mobile G1, there hasn’t been another Android device released, despite the fact that the G1 has been out for over 4 months. Lenovo has announced an Android phone, the Ophone, but so far it is just vaporware, and there were a few android devices announced at CES last month, but they were mostly from no name Asian OEMs, and will most likely never see the light of day.  

So what will it mean if there aren’t any real Android devices shown at MWC? It seems to me that the Open Handset Alliance might be in real trouble if handset makers don’t bring some hot Android love. While the software developer community seems to be picking up for Android, if the hardware doesn’t keep up, these developers may focus their energy on other platforms like iPhone, or Windows Mobile.

HTC seems to be preparing a new Android phone, but besides that there isn’t any solid evidence that anybody has an announcement coming up. I hope I’m wrong, because Android seems like a good platform, and diversity in this space helps foster innovation. All of this is pure speculation, but it is good to prepare yourself for what might happen. So often the internet gets caught up in rumor and innuendo, it becomes deafening. Just like the recent fury over the whether or not Apple will make an iPhone Nano (they won’t by the way), Google’s Android platform is the hot topic this week, even thought there is absolutely zero evidence anybody will have anything to say on the subject next week. My personal opinion is that the big news from Android at Mobile World Congress will be that there isn’t any big news at all.

What do you think?