>
>Let's call this mobile meta-competition something like this: The fight
>between the closed MNO-controlled vs. the open PC-like mobile device
>environment ...
It is not just open versus closed; it is also about who controls the key
interfaces. Nokia wants to control the interfaces just as much as DoCoMo
and Vodafone do. For example, the initial competition between PC
manufacturers in the late 1970s was perceived as solely competition between
various computer platforms, each of whom claimed they offered more software
than others (open versus closed). the change from 8 bit to 16 bit machines
in the early 1980s provided IBM with opportunity to provide a new and
better platform (it was actually a hybrid between 8-bit and 16-bit)
including better software. but it was two other firms that ended up
controlling the interfaces. the same thing can happen in the mobile
Internet as better processors and increased memory offer more client-side
programming and thus new forms of presenting content. and it may be that
firms other than nokia and the service providers end up controlling these
interfaces.
cheers,
jeff funk
Received on Mon Oct 20 05:40:04 2003