Apple V Google: Open Mobile Competition Begins

Thanks to the iPhone, millions of people finally have the Internet in their pocket, and feel it to be so. But there are still big obstacles to unleashing the innovative potential of the mobile web.

The industry's hands are tied in the US, because carriers and device makers, for the most part, keep outside developers from changing or adding unauthorized software. Similarly, computer industry players tend toward proprietary walled gardens. Apple is notoriously closed; Microsoft, which has a slowly growing presence in smartphones for business use, has made no secret of its move toward mass-market consumer phones; and BlackBerry is also is trying to move beyond business devices and into the consumer market.

Enter Android, Google’s smartphone OS. Android is about as open as you can get, and its partners include Sprint, T-Mobile, Telefonica, LG, Samsung, Motorola, and the major Telecoms in China and Japan. It’s designed to run on almost any hardware and includes a fully open and free UI complete with source code. It costs nothing for carriers to use, harnesses the power of Google's own applications, and throws development out to the whole coding world.

Android will no doubt change the nature of the mobile technology. The focus of the industry is shifting from what's inside the phone to the online stuff a handset can access, from mobile music and photo sharing to GPS and location-based services.

Now the question is turning to how controlled it should be. Mark Rolston, CEO of leading app developer Frog Design, challenged Google VP of Mobile Rich Miner at AO's Summit @ Stanford to address how, with so many partners and developers, Google would prevent a proliferation of incompatible versions. "In addition to open sourcing the code for Android," Miner responded, "we're going to open source the compliance tests." In other words, Google will let the Android community police compatibility standards. Smart.

In an increasingly fragmented mobile space, someone needs to step in, establish and enforce ...

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• android
• frog+design
• google
• open+mobile

[acezeler]

Yes that was interesting.Smart phones of the past could do a lot of and some things the I-Phone still can't do.I am a real gadget guy so I have had smart phones for years before the I-Phone.But the I-Phone appealed to a broader audience.Not the business world but people who like to have the coolest phone with the best apps and the most fun to use.The Google phone looks like it's going to be pretty cool as well and it does more then the I-Phone that's why I pre ordered one.

[prmd142]

That was very interesting discussion.......

[RadikaleTV]

Very interesting, is there a full length version available somewhere? Would you link to it?