Tuesday, August 8, 2006
Hidden Complexity Of The Cell Phone Market
Posted by Ed Hansberry in "ARTICLE" @ 04:00 AM
"In the latest PC Magazine, Michael Miller writes about the cool new things happening on mobile phones and opines that “consumers should be able to pick applications regardless of phone or carrier.” This is a wonderful idea, but is idealistic to such a degree as to be laughable. This fact doesn’t escape Miller’s attention. He adds: “There are multiple impediments: a bunch of different platforms that developers write for, a bunch of different phone makers, and four big national wireless carriers that want to control the applications on your phone.”
The article goes on to discuss Nokia, which seems to have done a fantastic job of starting with a basic platform and then heavily fragmenting it, much the way Unix was fragmented beginning in the 1970's. Even Windows Mobile is seeing some fragmentation. At a minimum you have the Pocket PC and Smartphone, but beyond that, you have multiple resolutions on both platforms that cause problems with some software. Even Microsoft's own Voice Command doesn't work right on WM5 VGA devices. I think to some degree, the problem with Windows Mobile in this area is carrier/OEM freedom to innovate. Laridian has had some problems supporting the QWERTY keyboard in the Moto Q the way they can on the Pocket PC because of it is difficult to even figure out what hardware the device has from the application.
It seems we have a choice. We either get the really cool devices today that leave some developers pulling their hair out over particular devices implementing particular features, or we get the very uniform, if bland, set of devices like we had from 2000 to around 2004, right before screen resolution and keyboards became big differentiators. What is ironic is it is exactly this type of fragmentation that I claimed hurt the Palm platform with developers during those same years, with Palm, Handspring and Sony each modifying the platform so much that Textware Solutions threw up their hands in frustration and cease PalmOS development, at least for the time being. I am sure they aren't the only one, but they are probably the most visible and vocal about it.
Let's hope that the Mobile Device development group strikes a balance between encouraging/allowing innovation and ultimate compatibility that results in cookie cutter devices.
The article goes on to discuss Nokia, which seems to have done a fantastic job of starting with a basic platform and then heavily fragmenting it, much the way Unix was fragmented beginning in the 1970's. Even Windows Mobile is seeing some fragmentation. At a minimum you have the Pocket PC and Smartphone, but beyond that, you have multiple resolutions on both platforms that cause problems with some software. Even Microsoft's own Voice Command doesn't work right on WM5 VGA devices. I think to some degree, the problem with Windows Mobile in this area is carrier/OEM freedom to innovate. Laridian has had some problems supporting the QWERTY keyboard in the Moto Q the way they can on the Pocket PC because of it is difficult to even figure out what hardware the device has from the application.
It seems we have a choice. We either get the really cool devices today that leave some developers pulling their hair out over particular devices implementing particular features, or we get the very uniform, if bland, set of devices like we had from 2000 to around 2004, right before screen resolution and keyboards became big differentiators. What is ironic is it is exactly this type of fragmentation that I claimed hurt the Palm platform with developers during those same years, with Palm, Handspring and Sony each modifying the platform so much that Textware Solutions threw up their hands in frustration and cease PalmOS development, at least for the time being. I am sure they aren't the only one, but they are probably the most visible and vocal about it.
Let's hope that the Mobile Device development group strikes a balance between encouraging/allowing innovation and ultimate compatibility that results in cookie cutter devices.
