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vodafone leads the standards play

Vodafone announced today they would only be supporting three platforms moving forward. This is the first major player to officially support a standards-route to mobile software and services development. Vodafone may be the first to announce such a (smart!) move – but operators worldwide are soon to follow. This is a huge step towards consolidation of an industry that is currently completely out of control, and a welcome step towards development sanity. The lack of such standards today means duplication of efforts, time-consuming testing and development on an array of handsets, and a lack of best practices overall.

Cutting down a forest of operating systems for phones, Vodafone said that over the next five years it would shift to support only Microsoft, Windows Mobile, Symbian/Series 60 and the open-source Linux

“By focussing on these three core terminal platforms, Vodafone expects to be able to reap the benefits of a range of efficiencies such as reduced handset development costs, as well as the quicker and more cost-effective roll-out of new services,” said Jens Schulte-Bockum, Vodafone’s head of terminals.

This is great news for smaller development houses and mobile start-ups whose main fault to date is not being able to support the multitude of devices, platforms and operating systems today. If the industry continues this shift – we may have a chance for true ubiquity with cross-platform devices and open source systems.

At the same time, Motorola has just announced their support of an open source version of Java ME (micro edition). We’re moving towards wrapping data in clean ‘open’ ways using meta data and allowing the display device to determine how it is going to display on screen. Open source is the answer – or at least a driver towards better standards and compliance by forcing the major players to comply. Apache is the ‘clean’ server to deploy various components (code, content, vector graphics, etc.) to a multitude of devices – it will help lead the way towards a better user experience.

This is the most definitive move yet to take Java ME out of the hands of start-ups and specialists – and sideline Java owner Sun – and put it into the hands of a broadly respected open source movement. Apache makes the Linux-based web server that dominates the internet world, and last summer Nokia promised to bring this technology to the mobile phone. Together with Motorola’s decision to choose Apache’s particular process for making mobile Java fully open source, this sees Apache hopeful of the same pivotal position in mobile internet that it has in the PC-based web.

It looks like this week is starting off with some major movement in the standards and open-source world. This is exciting news – stay tuned for others to follow.

Posted on November 6th, 2006 in Thoughts
Tagged as , , , , , , , , ,
Written by Kelly Goto

9 Responses to “vodafone leads the standards play”

Comments

  1. Dennis Hettema says:
    November 6th, 2006

    Exciting news but I’m rather cynical as to whether these standards will be applied in such a way that developers can make use of all functionalities of the phones. Lets hope that the move is a wholehearted one.

  2. Kelly Goto says:
    November 6th, 2006

    Dennis - I completly agree and do hope this is a movement towards real change. Keeping a balance (as with government) between multiple players to avoid a monopoly while at the same time leveraging brand strengths and best practices (open source!) to maintain a solid foundation to grow on is the goal. Let’s cross fingers this is the start of consolidation in the most positive way.

  3. mobiedave says:
    November 6th, 2006

    About time that the standards issue was resolved. Perhaps with standards we will see consistant, consumer focused user friendly UI development with resulting increased and improved premium data services available??

  4. Kelly Goto says:
    November 6th, 2006

    Mobiedave - I hate to say it, but this is a drop in the bucket as far as a real standard play goes. It is significant - but not going to change a single thing. There are too many moving parts and too many players in the game. Originally, SYMBIAN started to help the ‘smaller’ players (Nokia, Sony, Motorola, Samsung, I think) battle Microsoft. The ‘open’ system was created to combat a monopoly. The Web Standards group has created a mobile working group I was interested in being a part of - but one really needs to commit HOURS and YEARS to the effort. It’s going to be a tough road - I don’t envy the people who take on the challenge - I might assist in various ways but it’s going to be a pretty vertical climb.

  5. decat says:
    November 6th, 2006

    Hopefully, standards will drive the handset menufacturers and carriers to a commonality which will free developers from the tiresome constrains of creating software for multiple specs and unleash the creativity needed for a next generation UI and streamlinbed access to content and features

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