Mobile World Congress 2011

Mobile World Congress kicks off in Barcelona next week. It's the biggest event of the mobile industry calendar and sure to bring big news for smartphone and tablet fans. Read on after the jump to find out what to expect.

We're hoping to see tonnes of interesting new services and devices unveiled in Spain. Whilst some companies have already given us a sneak preview at their unveilings, others are keeping tight lipped. Here's our tips on the ones to watch out for.

1. The Sony Ericsson Xperia Play aka the PlayStation Phone 

The Sony Ericsson Xperia Play will properly break cover at Mobile World Congress. Sony Ericsson teased it in a Super Bowl advert but during Mobile World Congress it'll be revealed in full with the launch games and more. A combination of a super-smart Android phone and PlayStation gaming, the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play looks pretty damn impressive and the good news is that O2 will be carrying it! 

2. A whole lotta HTC phones 

HTC looks set to be hitting Mobile World Congress in force with leaks suggesting a raft of new HTC devices will be on show there. Pundits expect to see a replacement for the Desire, another Android beauty, which some suspect will come with a Super AMOLED screen and the Android 2.3.1 OS.  

3. Twitter founders, Google's chairman and Qualcomm boss talking shop 

Mobile World Congress has a lot of high profile speakers on the slate as well as high profile devices. Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt is topping the bill with Twitter's co-founders Evan Williams and Jack Dorsey both set to appear and the boss of Qualcomm (makers of some of the most advanced smartphone chips) presenting too. Expect interesting news from all of them. 

4. The Samsung Galaxy universe gets wider 

The Samsung Galaxy Tab is currently king of the iPad rivals while its smartphone sibling the Samsung Galaxy S is one of the best Android phones going. With that in mind it'll be exciting to see the new additions to the Samsung Galaxy line getting an outing at Mobile World Congress. The Samsung Galaxy S 2 specs are still underwraps but the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 is rumoured to be rocking a larger screen, 3D smarts, Android Honeycomb and a dual-core processor. 

5. Nokia ties up with Microsoft 

Nokia's new boss, CEO Stephen Elop, took to the stage in London this morning to announce a strategic alliance with Microsoft. No word on devices just yet, though we did get the promise that new products would happen faster than we've seen before from Nokia. This is the first pre-Mobile World Congress surprise and the show hasn't even started. Will we see more? Who knows, what we do know is that Windows Phone is now the defacto smartphone platform for Nokia.

Let us know: what sort of devices do you want to see announced at Mobile World Congress?