The battle of mobile stars leading the world ICT market begins in Barcelona, Spain. Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2017, which will be held in Barcelona, Spain from February 27, will launch a variety of premium smartphones, including 5th generation (G) mobile service, AI (Artificial Intelligence) along with VR (Virtual Reality) and more innovative technologies and services, such as AR (Augmented Reality) are expected to compete.

The theme of this year``s MWC is ‘Mobile. The next element.’ If the MWC 2016 focused on 4G service and 5G speed competition last year under the theme of ‘Mobile is Everything’, MWC 2017 expect competition for 5G technology and convergence services to emerge after the smartphone.

◇ MWC Stage without Galaxy S8, spark of smartphone ``Leading Competition`` = this year``s MWC is expected to be dominated by premium phones. The Samsung will show off its Galaxy S8, a tablet PC Galaxy Tab S3 instead of Galaxy Note 7, which has been suffering from a battery problem. Therefore it is still unknown who will take spotlight in the show.

One of the most promising candidates is G6 of LG Electronics. The G6 features a 5.7-inch full-vision display that minimizes the bezel (border) to 18-to-9 ratio and Google``s AI service ``Google Assistant``. LG Electronics has widened its exhibition space twice as much as last year. The company will show ``X Power 2`` with a large capacity battery of 4500mAh, K series K10, K8, K4 and K3 in addition to the G6.


Chinese Huawei is also expected to unveil the P10 on the same day as LG Electronics. The P10 is equipped with a dual lens camera developed jointly with a German camera brand ``Leica`` and Amazon``s AI service ``Alexa``.

The ``old boys`` of the mobile phone market are also expected to attend. Nokia will unveil Nokia P1 (tentative name), Lenovo acquired Motorola will unveil G5 Plus (tentative name) and Blackberry is expected to show ‘Mercury’. Samsung Electronics will target the premium tablet PC market. Galaxy Tab S3 and Galaxy Book 2 will be shown at this event. The new tablet supports S pen.

◇ AI • VR • AR • self-driving car... Next-generation convergence service to be center of ``attention`` = If the MWC ``hot issue`` last year was VR, the hot topic of this year’s MWC is AI. If the voice recognition AI service has been limited to speakers, a variety of products such as smart phones and wearable devices equipped with AI services will be introduced in this year``s MWC. In addition to the G6 and P10, it is expected that ``Nokia P1`` will be equipped with the ‘Viki’, a self-developed AI service. The Samsung Galaxy Tab S3, to which Samsung Electronics has publicly announced, is also interested in whether its own developed AI ``Bixby`` will be applied. Smart Watch is also the same. Smart watches with AndroidWare 2.0, which supports ``Google Assistant``, are expected to hit the market. LG Electronics will show ``LG Watch Sports`` and ``LG Watch Style`` which are equipped with AndroidWare 2.0, and Huawei will show ``Huawei Watch 2``. China ZTE and Sony will also release ``ZTE Quartz`` and ``Smart Watch 4`` respectively. Besides, SK Telecom will introduce the next-generation AI robot. It is a desktop device that adds image recognition technology to existing speech recognition technology. The company also plans to demonstrate robot prototypes and toy prototypes for babies that are linked with AI speakers ``who``.

VR is expected to remain in the exhibition in the MWC 2017 following by last year. Samsung Electronics will introduce a new gear VR. Samsung Electronics will show the controller for gear VR that can enjoy interactive game more realistically. The company also provided a ``VR 4D Experience Zone`` where you can experience 360-degree stereoscopic images directly. There will also be prepared Pocket Stop of PokemonGO as the Pokemon Item Supply Station, for the game-PokemonGo, which has been popular worldwide.

GSMA has prepared ``Next Tech Hall`` for AI, VR • AR, Robot, Dron, and Internet (IoT) which are dedicated to the next generation of convergence service devices and can be seen at a glance. The self-driving car, which had been spotlighted at ‘CES 2017’ in Las Vegas in January, also appears in the MWC. Ford, Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen will unveil their self-driving car technology.
◇ Evolving 5G-the core of the fourth industrial revolution = global mobile service is at the core of the 4th industrial revolution. 5G, which is 20 times faster than existing LTE, is considered to be an essential element of next-generation convergence services such as AI and self-driving car. This year, the focus goes to 5G-based future life rather than 5G speed competition.

SK Telecom will unveil ``360 Live VR`` and connected car ``T5``. ``360 Live VR`` is expected to be a service that will be activated in the 5G era due to the need to transmit and receive ultrahigh-volume data corresponding to a total of 6 camera screens by providing live UHD images in all directions. The company also plans to unveil Mixed Reality (MR) technology that combines AR-based holographic communication technology ``telepresence`` with VR and AR.

KT will demonstrate 5G innovation and realistic media to be presented at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics at the GSMA joint theme ``Innovation City``. ``Omnivue`` for multi-point streaming service, ``Time slice`` for viewing stop motion at various angles, ``SinkView`` for providing player view image, and 360 degree VR service will also be exhibited. "High Speed Train" will also be presented, which allows data to be used seamlessly when traveling on tunnels of high-speed trains.

By Jong Yoon Hee yuni@dt.co.kr


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