Browser and email market attract new entrants on mobile thanks to open source

Posted by on January 15, 2008

Companies like Wake3 and Funambol are starting to use open-source in the development of software for mobile computing devices. Open-source seems to be the perfect conduit to bring iPhone type browsing and e-mail to handheld devices. During a meeting of the Mobile Monday Silicon Valley group associates of Wake3, Funambol and Wind River noted the rise of open-source software on handsets. Wake3 is bringing the open-source WebKit mobile Web browser to Windows Mobile systems.

“WebKit for Windows Mobile really is, in essence, a kind of iPhone browsing for Windows Mobile,” said Daniel Zucker, CTO of Wake3.

He and an official at Wind River stressed the paradigm shift brought on by the iPhone. Instead of persons inquiring about what type of wireless service someone is using, they want to know if they have an iPhone, said Bill O’Such, Wind River director of engineering.

“It’s really changed the balance,” O’Such said.

“The iPhone opened up everyone’s eyes. For the first time, you could really get true desktop browsing on a device,” Zucker said.

Long given up for dead, mobile browsing and email is seeing renewed interest. Why? The ability to quickly mobilize (pun intended) a large development community to get its software into the hands of more developers more quickly. The developers can help test, fix and contribute to code changes that make the software better, Steger said.

“If you’ve ever developed a mobile phone application and you’re trying to address the mass market, there’s a fundamental problem,” he said. Half the world owns a cell phone but there are more than 1,000 models and many operating systems to support. But developers via open source can test the software and try it on their own phones.

“What we like to say is open source enables the largest mobile developer community to make any device work on any network. That’s probably the biggest single advantage at least from our experience of open source to mobile,” said Steger.

Source
MobileCrunch, January 11, 2008

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The wireless industry goes activist around Open Access

Posted by on June 20, 2007

A collection of wireless industry entrepreneurs including former executives at Virgin Mobile USA, Zingy, Vindigo, Omnisky, PalmSource and Penthera, has urged the US FCC to follow the suggestions for open access put forward by Frontline for the upcoming spectrum auction. “One does not have to ask Comcast or Time Warner Cable or even Verizon’s DSL division for permission to launch a new product, service or device,” the coalition said in its letter to Martin. “To borrow the Nike slogan, you can ‘just do it’. In wireless, on the other hand, you can ‘just ask the Big 4’.” reports RCR News. Naturally, the carriers oppose this approach.

Relevant Links
Small Wireless Players back Frontline’s Open Access Proposal
Click here for Open Spectrum

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Google attacks the walled garden

Posted by on November 29, 2006

A few more stories like this might just make us think that the walled garden might finally tumble.

Do the mobile operators use their market power – some might even call what they have a monopoly power – to block folks in the mobile content business from being able to distribute their content for free to everyone who wants it? You might think so but we could not possibly comment.

Google on the other hand apparently has no problems with its executives commenting on this topic. Chris Sacca, a senior executive at Google in charge of special initiatives, criticized mobile phone operators for trying to prevent their users from accessing Internet applications, specifically Google Mobile Maps. Google Mobile Maps gives access to interactive maps and satellite images, and also includes search results and details about local businesses. It also provides detailed directions to a location picked by the user. On Monday, Sacca told an event at Oxford University’s Said Business School that “we’ve been getting notes from some of the telco carriers who are saying ‘look, you need to stop our customers from downloading this thing’.”

“They’re inserting themselves in between you and an application that you want. I think that has scary, scary implications,” added Sacca, who was appearing on a panel titled Silicon Valley Comes To Oxford… Several other dot-com entrepreneurs also warned that the mobile industry faced massive challenges, and cannot expect to keep its users tightly controlled indefinitely. Matt Cohler, vice-president of strategy at Facebook, said that the major question facing mobile operators is what it does “when IP really takes over the remaining portions of the bridge that it hasn’t yet.” Reid Hoffman, chief executive of LinkedIn, was even more critical.

“I think it’s inevitably just a matter of time before general IP and open protocols get to mobile phones. And it’s like ‘are you sure you want to be standing there when the dam finally goes down?’,” Hoffman told the event. “I think a lot of people in Silicon Valley are agitating to work out ‘how do we take the dam down faster?’,” Hoffman added.

Earlier this month, 3 launched a service which gives users flat-rate access to mobile broadband services. Analysts believe this is an indication that the mobile industry has realized that it can’t keep its customers trapped in ‘walled gardens’ where they can’t freely access Internet services independently of those authorized by the operator.

Source
As reported Graeme Wearden and David Meyer, ZDnet UK – November 27, 2006

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