From February 27th to March 1st, the Mobile World Congress will take place in Barcelona, Spain. The MWC conference is Europe’s largest gathering for all things mobile! The event brings together phone manufacturers, software designers and the media, into a magical melting pot to discuss the future and beyond of our favourite portable devices. Unlike Las Vegas’ Consumer Electronics Show (CES), anything shown at the MWC conference is highly likely to reach the UK. So what are we most looking forward to seeing at the MWC conference 2012?

HTC

HTC look set to steal the show before it even begins. Inviting key members of the press to an event on the eve of the MWC conference, HTC must have something pretty important to announce to warrant their own event. What can we expect from HTC in 2012?

The Taiwanese giants look set to unveil a ONE series of top of the range smartphones. The ONE X (ONEX) is widely reported to have a jaw dropping quad core processor; power in a smartphone that could easily chomp its way through multitasking applications and Operating Systems such as Android Ice Cream Sandwich. With a supersized screen of over 4.5 inches, a HTC release of this rumoured spec would certainly help fight their corner against smartphone rivals Apple and Samsung. There’s also talk of a HTC ONE S (ONES) which will represent the next generation HTC Sensation, equipped with a still impressive 1.5GHz dual core processor and 8 megapixel camera.

Expect the unveiling HTC devices to have Sense 4.0 preinstalled. Sense 4.0 will give your HTC access to Microsoft’s Skydrive, improved copy and paste functionality and an improved dual panel task manager. Let’s hope the HTC rumours turn to truths at their announcement pre MWC conference.

Samsung Galaxy S3?

After months of speculation and rumour, we were saddened to hear the news that the Samsung Galaxy S3 won’t be making an appearance at the 2012 MWC conference. Instead Samsung plan to adopt Apple’s approach and host their own event; a PR stunt which will raise a mountain of hype and attention towards their flagship Samsung Galaxy S3.

One possible announcement Samsung may unveil at the MWC conference is a new Galaxy Note. The previous edition offered a happy balance between tablet and smartphone with a stylus equipped 5.3 inch portable device. For those who like the functionality of a stylus integrated with their tablet, the new Galaxy Note is rumoured to have a 10.1 inch display.

Nokia Lumia 900

We were mightily impressed by the announcement of the Nokia Lumia 900 at CES. Like an older brother to the Nokia Lumia 800, the latest Windows Phone offers a larger 4.3 inch screen size, 4G LTE capabilities and a front facing camera with Carl Zeiss optics. Currently only available in the USA, we expect Nokia to use the MWC conference as the perfect opportunity to spread the Lumia love and announce a UK release date. The Nokia Lumia series may also be set to expand with new editions trawling the web including a budget Nokia Lumia 730 and a possible Nokia Lumia 910.

With Windows also expected to dazzle their new Windows Tango OS to the world, the MWC conference should announce which smartphones in the Nokia Lumia series will be lucky enough to utilise this software.

BlackBerry

After a troublesome 2011 and senior level restructure, Canadian Manufacturers Research In Motion look set to announce a few new handsets to their BlackBerry Curve series. Expect unveilings of the BlackBerry Curve 9220 and 9320 at the MWC conference. BlackBerry’s biggest announcement is likely to be in the form of a tablet. With a smooth user interface and great multi-tasking potential, the original BlackBerry PlayBook was let down by the lack of apps available on its BlackBerry App World. With the new BlackBerry PlayBook 2.0 to offer apps from the Android Market, BlackBerry could be ready to unveil a tablet which can compete with the best. Let’s hope BlackBerry use the MWC conference to turn their fortunes around.

So there’s our round up of exciting releases we expect to be announced at the MWC conference 2012. Don’t forget to visit us next week as we bring you the latest info from Barcelona. Let us know what you think of these future releases on our Facebook page