Mobile World Congress 2013レポート ―― Firefox OS（HTML5）などオープン・プラットフォームの台頭とモバイル産業多極化への予感

世界最大のモバイル見本市・国際会議のMobile World Congress（MWC）が、今年もスペイン・バルセロナで開催された。会場で大きな注目を浴びていたのが、Mozillaの「Firefox OS」。これはAppleの「iOS」やGoogleの「Android」に続く、「第3のモバイルOS」として期待を集め、KDDIをはじめ世界20社近くの主要キャリアが支持を表明した。
他にスマートフォン関連の展示では、Nokiaが出品した「Lumia 520」などローエンド端末が注目される。中南米やアフリカなど新興国市場を開拓し、日米欧など先進国でも若年層などの新規需要を開拓する上で、各国のメーカーやキャリアは低・中価格帯の端末開発に力を入れ始めている。
いわゆる「テレマティクス」と呼ばれる車載システムも期待される。米General Motors（GM）など主要メーカーは、LTEとHTML5をベースにした次世代車載システムの開発を加速しており、それを会場でデモしていた。
次世代の近接無線規格として期待の高まるNFC関連では、AT&TやVerizonなど米キャリアが中心になって進めている「ISIS」、あるいは世界的クレジット・ブランドのMasterCardやVisa等がNFCベースの決済サービスを実機でデモしていた。

The annual Mobile World Congress (MWC), the world’s largest exhibition/conference of mobile technologies and products, was, as always, held in Barcelona, Spain in late February. In 2013 a record crowd of more than 72,000 people descended upon the Fira Gran Via, the new venue for the event. The highlight product for this year was the Firefox OS from Mozilla Foundation, which is expected to become the so-called “third mobile OS,” following Google's Android and iOS from Apple. Some 20 mobile operators world-wide, including KDDI, announced their support for the Firefox OS during the period of the event.
Another notable trend this year was low-end smartphones such as the Lumia 520 exhibited by Nokia. Consumers in emerging markets such as Central and South America, Africa and China want inexpensive smartphones, and this is encouraging mobile-operators and device manufacturers throughout the world to begin focusing on the development of low-and-middle priced smartphones, and the evidence of their efforts was on display at this year's event. The IT systems for automobiles, or so-called telematics, also drew high hopes. The main auto manufacturers in the US, such as General Motors, and manufacturers in Europe and Korea showed and demonstrated next-generation telematics based on LTE and HTML5. NFC (Near Field Communication), the next generation’s short-range wireless technology, also featured prominently this year. 'Isis', for example, which is a collaborative mobile payment project from major U.S. mobile operators such as AT&T and Verizon, were demonstrating their services at the venue. Similar projects by major credit brands, namely MasterCard and Visa, also demonstrated their mobile payment system, for example someone buying a bottle of water from a vending machine using a smartphone incorporating NFC.