tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17898384.post113624545117344323..comments2024-03-25T21:41:06.801-07:00Comments on Mobile Opportunity: Does the mobile OS matter?Michael Macehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17966107280587843091noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17898384.post-31395992663182332312009-01-04T21:05:00.000-08:002009-01-04T21:05:00.000-08:00Hi, Anonymous.Thanks for the comment. I agree wit...Hi, Anonymous.<BR/><BR/>Thanks for the comment. I agree with you about the cloud -- because it can be a consistent platform across mobile devices, I thin it eventually wins as the dominant platform for mobile app development. The trick is predicting when that will happen -- the iPhone has given a lot more momentum to native mobile app development at the moment.<BR/><BR/>I wrote some more about the fate of mobile app development <A HREF="http://mobileopportunity.blogspot.com/2008/02/mobile-applications-rip.html" REL="nofollow">here</A>.Michael Macehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17966107280587843091noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17898384.post-59486204734940400852009-01-03T20:11:00.000-08:002009-01-03T20:11:00.000-08:00Mike, I agree with David Beers you are formulating...Mike, I agree with David Beers you are formulating a lot of complex ideas flawlessly. I'm loving everything I've read here tonight.<BR/><BR/>My only question about this article in particular is, what about the cloud?<BR/><BR/>I mean this is just another reason why most people won't care about mobile OS's. As the web develops, and as mobile hardware develops, and the connection speeds and so on and so forth, won't most applications be part of the cloud anyway? The need for OS-specific software is dying. You only have to look at google docs to see that.<BR/><BR/>In summary I see mobile OS's in the future really as more of a means to connect to the internet than anything else. The only difference between them will be what browser they're running.<BR/><BR/>Just my 2 cents. Great work on the blog i look forward to reading more.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17898384.post-21393472300285985132007-06-22T11:09:00.000-07:002007-06-22T11:09:00.000-07:00Hi Mike -- Good food for thought. I have two comm...Hi Mike -- Good food for thought. I have two comments:<BR/><BR/>1) You make a couple references to the fact that consumers don't care about the OS, and if you are talking about the mass market of consumers, I couldn't agree more. However, I'm not sure I would agree that what the consumer cares about defines what "Matters". An analogy would be the music industry -- do record companies matter? Not to consumers of pop and rock. But do record companies matter? Absolutely. They matter to immensely to artists in terms of the support they can/can't give in terms of promotion, distribution, recording, etc. And the support they give to artists indirectly matters to consumers, even if consumers are not aware of the difference between, say, Warner and Sony music. The same holds true for Mobile OSes. Consumers don't have to know about the Mobile OS in order for them to matter to devices manufacturers and mobile application/service developers. But the fact that the mobile OS does matter to the device manufacturer as well as the service provider does, in the end, matter to the consumer, in terms of the price of the product and the services the product offers, even if the consumers doesn't know *why* their RIM/Palm/Windows/Symbian-based product can do the things it does.<BR/><BR/>2) You say that the two most successful mobile products are the iPod and the Blackberry. I assume you mean the whole family of iPod products (iPod, Video iPod, Nano, etc) Both of these families of products are successful, but neither is nearly as successful, in terms of volume sales, as products based on SSymbian OS and the S60 platform. Over 100 million S60-based phones have been sold. Granted, most consumers do not know that they are using an S60-based phone. But does it matter if they don't know? I'd argue that for the companies using the OS to create devices which there is clearly strong consumer demand, it matters a great deal.<BR/>-Daniel Shugrue<BR/>Nokia Software Platforms MarketingDaniel Shugruehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13298033936879751990noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17898384.post-1825067550256138792007-04-13T20:45:00.000-07:002007-04-13T20:45:00.000-07:00I just got my fiancee a Blackberry Pearl, and I'm ...I just got my fiancee a Blackberry Pearl, and I'm trying to figure out what application platform it runs. Does anyone know of Blackberry Bit Torrent Sites where you can get games and applications for it?<BR/><BR/>text to screen<BR/>http://www.firetext.tvText to Screenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08443957960289811388noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17898384.post-1162422879899379022006-11-01T15:14:00.000-08:002006-11-01T15:14:00.000-08:00The comment above was removed at the author's requ...The comment above was removed at the author's request. Sorry.Michael Macehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17966107280587843091noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17898384.post-1158361013812718022006-09-15T15:56:00.000-07:002006-09-15T15:56:00.000-07:00I find your comments very illuminating, unlike muc...I find your comments very illuminating, unlike much of what is written in this area.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17898384.post-1142240823354176862006-03-13T01:07:00.000-08:002006-03-13T01:07:00.000-08:00Mike, thanks for your reply."I don't buy into the ...Mike, thanks for your reply.<BR/><BR/><I>"I don't buy into the whole feature phone vs. smart phone philosophy, though. I believe customers don't think that way."</I><BR/><BR/>Agreed. It's an industry descriptor for a market segment. And a moving target, at that.<BR/><BR/>In the context of your other comments, and an increasingly fragmented market your reply makes perfect sense.<BR/><BR/>Soleus will be invisible to users. In comparison to devices such as Blackberry and IPod - Soleus handsets will be relatively boring.<BR/><BR/>But as you note, the OS does address some known needs. It will be interesting to see the how it fares.<BR/><BR/>JimJim Kaynehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14819218368280031235noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17898384.post-1141176748574230252006-02-28T17:32:00.000-08:002006-02-28T17:32:00.000-08:00Thanks for the interesting comment, Jim, and I'm s...Thanks for the interesting comment, Jim, and I'm sorry I was slow to respond to it.<BR/><BR/><BR/>>Your article doesn't state explicitly what the desired featues in this segment are<BR/><BR/>I go into that one in depth in my post on the "Myth of the Smartphone market." You can see the link at right, under "favorites."<BR/><BR/><BR/>I agree strongly with the idea of a provisioning system that can push the apps that a particular user wants onto the device. But some functionality also requires hardware changes, or a deeper change to the OS. Those things would be hard to provision to a device on the fly.<BR/><BR/>I haven't had a chance to try Soleus, so I can't say much about it. The presentations seem reminiscent of things I've seen for products like Obigo. The focus is on helping phone companies provision various software components to phones, not so much on customizing them for users after purchase.<BR/><BR/>Better provisioning is interesting and needed, because phone manufacturers have a huge problem with non-reusable code. So I think there's a place for products like this.<BR/><BR/>I don't buy into the whole feature phone vs. smart phone philosophy, though. I believe customers don't think that way. You can read more about that in the post I mentioned above.<BR/><BR/><BR/>>>This is a serious inquiry as to whether many of the needs you and others have touched on haven't been satisfied by this new OS.<BR/><BR/>Nope. It's an improvement, but not the full answer in my opinion.<BR/><BR/><BR/>Anyway, good comment, and thanks for sharing it.Michael Macehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17966107280587843091noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17898384.post-1140900528383898012006-02-25T12:48:00.000-08:002006-02-25T12:48:00.000-08:00Hi Mike -Reading your thoughts on mobile OSes, and...Hi Mike -<BR/><BR/>Reading your thoughts on mobile OSes, and the links to ARC Chart and Dean Bubley articles, the question that arose was whether there's an approach to the intertwined problems that's "smart enough". I agree: mostly, users don't care about the OS.<BR/><BR/>From the operator side of the equation, there's a number of problems with OSes, that stem from proprietary systems, and developmental difficulties associated with them. Whether you're talking SavaJe, Symbian, Linux, or MS Mobile, it's first a question of market segment - and we have, by exclusion, addressed the largest segment: not the savvy high-end SmartPhone user, but the less discriminating Feature Phone user. A choice from any of these OSes is really a choice for different sets of tradeoffs: development costs, adaptability, IP costs, etc.<BR/><BR/>I suggest that will always be the case<BR/><BR/>Your article doesn't state explicitly what the desired featues in this segment are, beyond voice, but they're fairly clear to most industry observers - email, messaging, and then, various combination of other features, such as listening to downloaded tunes.<BR/><BR/>For the operator, it would be helpful if these features are married to a "menu" of common features, which can be quickly added by the operator - without months of development time, consultants, or OS tinkering.<BR/><BR/>The dream scenario for the operator, (and of course for the end-user desiring this or that feature, but not caring about the OS) is that the most widely-used features from the menu could be quickly coded and activated.<BR/><BR/>What we're speaking of is a question of degree: I don't suppose anyone is suggesting any mobile OS can be all things to all people. At some point any sufficiently complex development will invoke costs. But it would be immensely helpful to have minimal cost and time devoted to selection from the "menu" of widely-used features.<BR/><BR/>ARC Chart makes reference to Intrinsyc's new OS, which has since emerged with a name: Soleus. The OS uses a stripped-down subset of Win CE components. In demonsrations at Cannes and Barcelona, audiences were polled for suggestions. The suggestions were then coded into the handset/OS, the handset was activated, and a call was made using the requested features. In real time.<BR/><BR/>The end user may be OS-agnostic, but the operator certainly isn't. There's an operator market segment that needs to be properly addressed by an OS, which allows them to cost-effectively meet the needs of end-users. SavaJe illustrates that some operators were willing to commit millions to developing such an OS, and freeing themselves of legacy/proprietary issues and development costs. The promise of "write once, run everywhere" still comes with some tradeoffs, however.<BR/><BR/>This is a serious inquiry as to whether many of the needs you and others have touched on haven't been satisfied by this new OS. <BR/><BR/>I'd appreciated any informed comments.<BR/><BR/>FYI, a couple of links:<BR/><BR/>http://soleus.intrinsyc.com/<BR/><BR/>http://www.intrinsyc.com/<BR/><BR/><BR/>Regards,<BR/><BR/>Jim KayneJim Kaynehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14819218368280031235noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17898384.post-1136534105560445382006-01-05T23:55:00.000-08:002006-01-05T23:55:00.000-08:00REALLY enjoying your blog, Michael. You're formul...REALLY enjoying your blog, Michael. You're formulating a lot of ideas that I've been struggling to articulate for a while.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17898384.post-1136324013276815002006-01-03T13:33:00.000-08:002006-01-03T13:33:00.000-08:00Really in line with you, see my comments here : ht...Really in line with you, see my comments here : http://tmenguy.free.fr/TechBlog/index.php?2006/01/03/43-does-mobile-os-matters-no-it-all-about-functionAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com