Watching the annual Mobile World Congress (MWC) show from back in my home base of the United States always fills me with a pang of sorrow. First, I am sad that I am not in Spain, eating my full body weight in jamón ibérico. But mostly, I'm sorry to realize that many of the best products of MWC will rarely make their way to my part of the world.
MWC is a global event and, thus, a reminder that people use phones all over the world. Some of those phones are from companies that simply don't bother with the U.S. market for a variety of reasons — the dominance of Apple and Samsung, the headache of trying to line up deals with U.S. carriers — yet still produce devices that would be immediate contenders for best phone, if they were to ever land on these shores.
