The future of smartphones seen at MWC2021 which was held online exceptionally in Korona-ka

■ Serialization / Smartphone conference of Takayuki Horin, Atsushi Ishikawa, Junya Ishino, Asako Fusano

"Smartphone talk" that you can understand the back side of the industry by four people who are interviewing at the forefront of the smartphone industry. This time we will discuss "MWC Barcelona 2021".

* We are taking measures against the new coronavirus.

MWC where "O-RAN" attracted attention

Mr. Fusano: The world's largest mobile phone-related exhibition "MWC Barcelona 2021" was held from June 28th to July 1st. This time it was a hybrid of real venue and online distribution, how was it?

Mr. Fusano

Mr. Ishino: Was MWC really held (laughs)?

Mr. Ishino

Mr. Horin: DoCoMo explained the exhibits and the contents of the exhibition for the press in the head office building, but when I saw the video of the local venue on a big screen, I thought "Ah, Barcelona!" ..

Mr. Horin

Mr. Fusano: I wanted to go to the site.

Mr. Ishino: I saw the keynote speech video in which the CEOs of Qualcomm and Verizon appeared, but the people who are watching the keynote speech are just sitting down. There were some people who took the stage at the venue, but most of them were virtual appearances.

Ishikawa: The AWS CEO was also virtual. The Verizon people were talking locally.

Mr. Ishikawa

Mr. Ishino: In Verizon, the CEO was the video, and the CSO (Chief Strategy Officer) was there to demonstrate the dog-shaped robot of Boston Dynamics.

Ishikawa: As far as I can see the video, it feels like the afternoon of the last day of MWC every year.

Mr. Ishino: I thought that "revival of MWC" might be a little unreasonable (laughs).

Mr. Ishikawa: The number of visitors was limited to 50,000, but it seemed that there weren't even 50,000.

Mr. Ishino: I was broadcasting the venue on a site called "Mobile World Live" run by the organizer GSMA, but no one was walking at all. Where did the crowded visitors go?

Mr. Ishikawa: Next year, MWC Barcelona in 2022 is scheduled to be held from February 28th to March 3rd, but this time it seems that a new company was exhibiting at the place of the company that did not set up the booth. I think the map of the venue will change a little.

Mr. Fusano: Ericsson uses a large space every year, but this time it seems that a company called Telco DR has entered.

Ishikawa: It's an American cloud company.

Mr. Ishino: When Ericsson comes back, I feel like I'll return the place and say (laughs).

Ishikawa: Cloud companies may not be exhibiting at MWC next year.

As for smartphones, Qualcomm announced "Snapdragon 888+". Also, Samsung talked a bit about the "Galaxy Watch" smartwatch, but it was like "I'll announce a new product again."

The hottest is related to O-RAN (Open Radio Access Network). I thought that network-related things are likely to evolve in the future. With the introduction of general-purpose servers, it will be possible to use products from various manufacturers and vendors in an open manner. There are various issues, but I think it will be such a world view. Therefore, NEC is gaining momentum. There is also talk that carriers will adopt it. With the era of "full virtualization" that Rakuten Mobile has finally come to fruition, there is also a point of interest as to what the advantages of Rakuten Mobile will be in the future.

[Reference] O-RAN specification compliant 5G radio: 5G ｜ NEC

Mr. Ishino: Even though it's O-RAN, base station vendors such as Nokia and Ericsson haven't exhibited at all this time, so it wasn't very exciting.

Ishikawa: Intel also announced online. NVIDIA has announced that it will partner with Google. There are concrete talks about putting semiconductors in the network, putting processors, and turning AI around with GPUs, so until now it was "what a 5G", but now it's true. It will be 5G. I feel that it will be interesting.

Mr. Ishino: Such an announcement was made almost virtually virtually. I was a little wondering what I could see there. NEC announced that O-RAN products have been adopted by overseas carriers and had a virtual exhibition.

Advantages and disadvantages of O-RAN

Mr. Fusano: I don't really understand O-RAN yet ...

Mr. Ishino: For example, in the case of Ericsson's equipment, until now, all the antenna poles and core networks were Ericsson's products, but let's simply disassemble them.

Mr. Horin: To put it terribly, insanely, roughly speaking, the difference between a conventional network and O-RAN is about the difference between a manufacturer's personal computer or Mac and a home-built personal computer.

Mr. Ishino: Yeah, that's how it feels.

Mr. Ishikawa: It's like "expensive but complete package" or "choose your favorite specs and parts at your favorite price".

Mr. Fusano: I see.

Mr. Ishino: The antenna is Ericsson, and the core network is Nokia. It's a combination that Rakuten Mobile is doing right now.

Mr. Horin: However, if you do so, things like "this won't work on your own PC" can occur on the network. It has the same risks as homebrew.

Mr. Ishikawa: By becoming O-RAN, there will be more places to enter by saying, "This part is strong in my house, so I will do it only here." Also, as a carrier, DoCoMo knows that "this kind of combination will work", so we can take the approach of "try using this overseas as well."

Mr. Horin: DoCoMo and AGC are making unique antennas. Naturally, a story like "Why don't you buy only the antenna from us?" Can occur from such a company. Of course, you can't just put it out and sell it, so you have to go and support it. It is a business opportunity including that.

However, I think it is quite difficult. When a trouble occurs, it becomes difficult to find out where the cause is. Until now, I was able to say, "This time Ericsson is bad," like when Softbank had a failure, but I can't say that.

Prototype of "meta-surface lens" that efficiently guides radio waves in the millimeter-wave band (28 GHz band) from outdoors to indoors using meta-surface technology (before transparency processing)

Mr. Ishino: It means that the career itself is bad.

Mr. Horin: We need to know what kind of parts we have. For example, if you have a problem with the antenna of a base station in area A, check which product it is, and check it because it is the same as the one in area B.

Mr. Fusano: What do you do with maintenance?

Mr. Horin: There is a place that specializes in maintenance. However, rather than maintenance, I think that various companies will have business opportunities, such as glass antennas and radio lens conversion of windowpanes using meta-surface technology. Glass is strong in Japan, so I'm looking forward to it.

Mr. Ishino: On the other hand, there is also talk about whether the connectivity with the existing 4G equipment, Nokia, Huawei, Ericsson, etc., is okay. Existing vendors may not reveal the required data.

Mr. Horin: It may be that the existing vendors do not reveal the specifications, but ... I think that the company that was operating in a state of throwing to the vendor of the base station is difficult, but we are ourselves. Even if various things come in, the company made by will be able to devise and combine them.

Mr. Ishino: That's right. In Japan, I think that DoCoMo and KDDI are doing it themselves, but overseas, the round-throwing group is the mainstream. Just because it's open doesn't mean that Ericsson will buy NEC's equipment into the network that Ericsson undertakes (laughs). I wonder how effective it is.

Mr. Ishikawa: I feel that the know-how part is large, and in fact, Ericsson says, "O-RAN may only spread by about 10%." However, even in the O-RAN era, there are steadily taking measures to counter it, so I think that the situation will change drastically. Regarding general-purpose servers, we often hear that the amount of capital investment may be reduced, but the power consumption is not even.

Mr. Horin: If you compare it to a personal computer, originally, a ready-made personal computer made by a manufacturer was widely used, and a self-made personal computer appeared there, and many parts such as motherboards were sold. However, the ones I made did not work properly or were difficult to assemble, so in order to meet those needs, shop brand products assembled with popular parts came out. If the parts of your own PC are not compatible with each other, they will not work or various troubles will occur. Then, the popularity of the shop brand will come out, but there will be stories like "I have a little support ..." and "I'm worried about that shop." So, gradually, my own PC has become something that some of my favorite people enjoy. At the same time, the times have moved to notebook PCs. Then you can't sell your own work. Meanwhile, an almost assembled kit called NUC (Next Unit of Computing), which Intel is doing, came out. If you insert the SSD and memory into it, buy the power cable yourself, and assemble it, you have a personal computer.

If you apply this story to a mobile phone network, the ready-made ones are excellent. I try to do it by myself in order to reduce the cost, but it will definitely not work somewhere or there will be insufficient support. I think that something like a half kit, in short, an O-RAN kit, will come out.

Mr. Ishino: The "5G Open RAN Ecosystem" that DoCoMo is doing is close to that.

DoCoMo "5G Open RAN Ecosystem"

Ishikawa: It's a recommended package.

Mr. Horin: "The combination of NEC's and Intel's is made of O-RAN, but what about?" And when I went to sell it to Asian countries, "Then, I will buy it. "

Mr. Ishino: Like Rakuten's "Rakuten Communications Platform," all core networks can be created with software and sold overseas, so vendors can do business in various places. Something like Soracom is now selling its core network as one of the vendors, and it's an interesting time. On the contrary, there are some negative points from the perspective of Ericsson and Nokia.

Mr. Horin: The difficult thing is to be reliable in the end. It is fatal to stop the mobile phone network. I made it O-RAN, I managed to do it, the cost went down, but it's a problem that the network stopped when the thunder struck yesterday. So it's not that easy.

Mr. Ishino: After all, if you open the lid, it is possible that all the major vendors were in charge.

Mr. Horin: That's the flow of telephone exchanges after all. In the old days, people used to insert and remove plugs from large objects like chests of drawers. After that, things that are all controlled by machines came out, and recently they are controlled by software. It will gradually become more open. However, the decisive difference from a home-built computer is reliability. Extreme reliability is required.

Mr. Ishikawa: A few years ago, while Rakuten Mobile was leading the way with full virtualization, it was a common understanding of the other three carriers that "it cannot be introduced immediately because reliability is also required." However, I feel that it was MWC Barcelona in 2021 that finally started to move.

Mr. Horin: At first, it will be partial.

Mr. Ishikawa: It seems that Microsoft's Azure (Azure cloud platform) will also deploy packages for carriers, so it may be that "the system is running on Azure" in a few years. At this MWC, I could see that there could be a world centered around Microsoft, Intel, NVIDIA, AWS, and so on.

Mr. Ishino: Soracom has created a core network on AWS so that users can access it. I think it's quite advanced in that I've been doing this for a few years now. Major carriers are about to do such things.

O-RAN does not reduce mobile phone charges

Mr. Horin: I think O-RAN is important in terms of a turning point, but what it means to consumers has nothing to do with it.

Ishikawa: Yes, that's right. There is an article that says that price destruction will occur if such O-RAN technology and virtualization technology are introduced, but it is different.

Mr. Ishino: It also means that the story is so plain that you won't be able to read the article unless you say so. I have no choice but to force myself to talk about the price.

Mr. Horin: What is the big cost of mobile phone charges? The reason why ahamo is cheaper is that users don't go to the shop, so there is no labor cost.

Mr. Fusano: It means that labor costs are the highest.

Mr. Horin: Technologies like O-RAN may not be directly related to users, but I think the past year or two will be the time when various things will change. It's the same with LINE, "+ message", what happens to carrier mail, and so is iMessage. Timing that changes various things.

Ishikawa: From that perspective, I wanted to go to MWC Barcelona this year. I think I wanted to go, or if I was really completely real, I would have seen the protagonist change. I think there were announcements that cloud companies such as AWS had booths and Azure was offered to carriers. It's a pity that we couldn't see MWC in real life at the turning point of that era.

Mr. Horin: However, it may be said, "Since reliability is important, Mr. Nokia and Mr. Ericsson, please." NEC may come to make the entire system, saying, "I will do my best to make it with ready-made products."

Mr. Ishino: It would be shocking if Nokia and Ericsson's exhibition space became Google and AWS at the next MWC.

OPPO Rino5 A vs Mi 11 Lite 5G

Mr. Ishikawa: The momentum of Chinese manufacturers of terminals is amazing. Especially for Xiaomi, "Mi 11 Lite 5G" is light and thin, and it feels dangerous.

Mr. Ishino: It moves crunchy, the camera can be taken as it is, it is compatible with Osaifu-Keitai, and it costs 43,800 yen without any discount. With goo Simseller, you can buy it for a limited time, but it costs 20,000 yen as a set with the SIM of OCM Mobile ONE.

Mr. Ishikawa: I think it's a match to match the price with OPPO's "Rino 5 A".

Mr. Ishino: It's actually cheaper than Rino5 A, isn't it? Osaifu-Keitai is included, and it is cheaper than the global version, and I have completely aimed at OPPO. The enthusiasm is amazing.

Mr. Ishikawa: In an interview with Xiaomi's general manager for East Asia, Stephen Wang, when asked what to do, Xiaomi does not have brand power in Japan, but "I spend development costs rather than advertising costs. We will make good products and spread them by word of mouth. " I was skeptical at that time, but when I actually touched the product ...

Mr. Ishino: That's good.

Ishikawa: The difference with Rino5 A is clear.

Mr. Fusano: Is it so different?

Mr. Ishino: It's completely different. OPPO uses Rino Sashihara as a character to advertise, but the advertising fee is quite high (laughs). Mi 11 Lite is a Snapdragon 780G chip, and that thinness ... Osaifu-Keitai is also equipped with Rino 5 A. In detail, Mi 11 Lite is better for vibration feedback.

Ishikawa: I was convinced that I wouldn't advertise. There was such a difference.

Mr. Ishino: With Mi 11 Lite, even people who used high-end models can move. I don't think you can tell any difference even if you move. It's as good as you think it's a thin, high-end smartphone. Is this in the 40,000 yen range? I thought.

Mr. Fusano: Mi 11 Lite is only a SIM-free model, isn't it?

Ishikawa: That's right. MVNO handles.

Mr. Ishino: IIJmio and BIGLOBE Mobile, goo Simseller.

Mr. Fusano: I think it was strong that OPPO was able to deliver to carriers such as Y! Mobile.

Mr. Ishino: That's right.

Mr. Horin: OPPO is focusing on spreading the name to the market with the Sashihara effect (using the talent Rino Sashihara as the image character), and I get angry when I say this, but "Post Huawei" (Far) I got a good position like (meaning to succeed Way). Their biggest challenge is not being able to go up from there. In other words, the Rino series can be released, but the Find X series cannot be sold so easily.

Xiaomi has to aim for the high-end market for the time being. If you get a number in Mi's Lite series and Redmi series. I understand the strategy of not advertising, but how do users feel when they go to the Yodobashi Camera store and see the device with Sashihara's face photo and the device with Xiaomi written on it? Well, if you've been to China or Asia, you may have seen the Mi logo, but I think it's probably about 1 in 100. Xiaomi's name recognition in Japan is still low, what should we do with it?

Mr. Ishino: The difference between whether Y! Mobile handles it or not is quite large. Rakuten Mobile also handles OPPO. Since the sales channel of Xiaomi is too narrow, there are very few opportunities to be seen by the general public. Of course I don't do commercials either. The Mi 11 Lite is a good device, but I think the number will be higher for the Rino 5 A.

Mr. Ishikawa: It will take time for Xiaomi to penetrate.

Mr. Horin: Huawei has adopted a strategy of delivering Osaifu-Keitai to carriers and going with a carrier monopoly model. OPPO has posted Osaifu-Keitai saying that it will be released SIM-free. Xiaomi has released both based on those two. After all, it feels like the players will change with the times. Whether Xiaomi will raise its brand power and get its name known.

Mr. Ishino: Xiaomi has a slightly higher name base in Japan than OPPO. It was reported very much for a while like "Apple in China".

Mr. Horin: It's how pervasive it is.

Mr. Ishikawa: That is an issue because it is not yet known to general users. The person in charge of OPPO who spoke to me the other day said that it was time to withdraw from Japan if the Reno series did not sell. It was said that Rino Sashihara was appointed as an advertisement to sell Osaifu-Keitai in response to Osaifu-Keitai, even though it landed in Japan but did not sell well. OPPO noticed at an early timing that "Japan must do commercials after all". Because when OPPO entered the market, President Woo Singh said, "I will go by word of mouth as in China." It changed the strategy with Koro because I understood the Japanese market. I wonder which way Xiaomi will shake. I think it's important to pay attention to whether to go on the route in front of Corona or to do a commercial with a little sex appeal.

Mr. Horin: OPPO uses Rino Sashihara for commercials, so it doesn't feel like China, but Xiaomi has a Chinese maker feel. I am a little worried about how much it will be accepted in the current situation. Like Huawei, Xiaomi is one of the names in the news that it has become a candidate for the US Department of Commerce list, so it's a bit of a concern for users.

Leica smartphone "Leitz Phone 1"

Mr. Ishikawa: Germany is the focus of attention, "Leitz Phone 1" made by a German manufacturer.

Mr. Ishino: The contents are Japanese manufacturers (Sharp) (laughs)

Mr. Ishikawa: I feel that Sharp did a good job by releasing "AQUOS R6" at the right time. It may be Sharp or Softbank.

Mr. Horin: No one knows the composition of Leica, Softbank, and Sharp players. There is talk that Softbank is Leica, while Sharp was selling terminals for a while, so in fact it must have been to and from Germany.

Mr. Ishikawa: At the recital, it was called Leica and Softbank, and the timing may have been almost the same. However, I don't think this story was established with Leica and Sharp alone. I don't think Sharp alone could do Leitz Phone 1. Because there is a limit to selling SIM-free. There is a part that it was realized because Softbank, the backing of Softbank, buys it. In other words, what I want to say is that Japan has introduced a model of separating terminals and lines, but if the separation really progresses, I think that interesting terminals like Leitz Phone 1 will not come out. There are many interesting terminals in Japan because there is a relationship that the carrier guarantees to the manufacturer, "Make an original terminal." So what about what the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications is doing?

Mr. Ishino: Regarding Leitz Phone 1, on the contrary, I feel that SIM-free is better (laughs).

Mr. Ishikawa: I have no choice but to release it SIM-free.

Mr. Ishino: Even though it's SIM-free, it means that you can buy the SoftBank version without SIM lock.

Mr. Horin: There is another problem with the corresponding band, but that style is ahead of the future sales.

Mr. Ishino: I was a little wondering why the camera is a device for sale and the camera app cannot be started at the recital. Well, Leica's commitment and supervision is amazing when you look at the image quality of the AQUOS R6.

Mr. Horin: I think it's interesting that the evaluation of AQUOS R6 is a little different between the mobile industry and the camera industry. People in the camera industry say, "When you look at Leica's standards, this image quality is ...".

Ishikawa: The prices are too different.

Mr. Ishino: That's right.

Mr. Horin: We think, "Compared to last year's AQUOS R5G, it's so much higher!"

Mr. Ishino: Painting is just like a Huawei terminal, isn't it?

Mr. Fusano: I thought it was a little darker than Huawei.

Mr. Ishino: At this roundtable discussion, the dullness of the shutter rug that I and Mr. Ishikawa were concerned about was not fixed. Well, it's difficult to shoot people.

Ishikawa: You'll be late.

Mr. Ishino: When I try to shoot a child, it's too late for the child to frame out.

Ishikawa: Also, the image quality of the video in the dark is poor.

Mr. Horin: I thought I could take good daytime videos, but the dark scenes are still a little ... I think that the performance of the sensor itself has improved, but the capacity of the current Snapdragon may not be enough for the speed of reading etc.

Mr. Ishino: Also, Xperia, which uses a memory-stacked sensor, is very fast. You can take a picture with Kashakasha Kashakasha.

Horin: The 1-inch sensor is obviously big. The sensor for digital cameras and the sensor for smartphones are different things. For smartphones, we have all the tools that make it easy to develop. In that respect, the AQUOS R6 and Leitz Phone 1, which use sensors for digital cameras, have to be built from scratch, so it's not an ordinary thing. It seems that if you simply apply the software, it will not work. It seems that there was a lot of trouble.

Mr. Ishikawa: AQUOS R6 and Leitz Phone 1 are good, but I'm looking forward to the future evolution.

Mr. Ishino: I wanted Leica to supervise the usability. When I named it Leitz Phone, I wondered if that shutter rug would be fine. Hey ...

Mr. Horin: I've never taken it with a Leica camera. I've never touched such a high-class thing (laughs)

Mr. Ishino: Because it's Leica, it might be good to take an artistic landscape, but ... I thought Sony was amazing. After using the AQUOS R6, I thought that the Xperia camera was well made.

Mr. Ishikawa: If you think about it, Sony doesn't put a 1-inch sensor on the Xperia because it turns out to be difficult.

Mr. Ishino: Looking at the balance, it was designed like this. However, the AQUOS R6 is outstandingly beautiful when you take pictures of landscapes and things.

Ishikawa: Yes, that's what makes it so attractive.

Mr. Ishino: As a dedicated camera for stationary objects.

Ishikawa: Also, close-up photography is weak, isn't it?

Mr. Ishino: That's right.

Mr. Horin: That is unavoidable due to the structure of the lens.

Mr. Ishino: There are many hesitations about AF. I think, "Do you get lost in AF in that landscape?" Well, there is a rough cut that feels like the first machine.

Mr. Fusano: Do ​​you have any expectations for the next "AQUOS R7"?

Mr. Ishino: I think it can be fixed to some extent by updating the software.

Mr. Ishikawa: I feel that Leica wants to tune to the last minute.

Mr. Horin: When the Leitz Phone 1 is officially released, it is expected that the AQUOS R6 will probably be upgraded with the camera software. I think it's a real evaluation at that time.

Mr. Fusano: By the way, it's not a "Leica phone".

Ishikawa: It's a Leica with a rights camera. Rights phone with rights phone. This is the first Leica smartphone. If you follow the Leica name, it's "Leica" (laughs)

......Continue!

Next time, Google's pring will meet on the acquisition. Please stay tuned.

Takayuki Horin writes review articles for digital-related products such as smartphones, mobile phones, and personal computers, and commentary articles for beginners, focusing on Web media and magazines. He has written many books such as manuals. Opinion number of the mobile industry.

Atsushi Ishikawa After joining Nikkei Home Publishing Co., Ltd. (currently Nikkei BP), he became independent in 2003. He covers not only domestic carriers and manufacturers, but also Google and Apple. He appeared as a lecturer on NHK E-Tele "Hobby Doki! My First Smartphone". He is publishing an e-mail magazine "Smartphone Industry Newspaper (540 yen per month)".

Junya Ishino Joined Takarajimasha after graduating from Keio University. After becoming independent, he has been active in a wide range of media as a mobile journalist / writer. He has authored numerous books such as "Keitai Children" (Softbank new book) and "Easy to understand in one hour" (Mainichi Shimbun).

After being involved in editing mobile phone magazines at Asako Fusano Publishing, she became independent as a freelance writer from 2002. As one of the few female writers in the mobile industry, she writes in magazines and web media, focusing on introducing mobile devices from a female perspective.

Composition / Mikihiro Nakama / Asako Fusano