I Agree With O’Reilly
Tim O’Reilly of the Web 2.0 fame posted a great article on the NYT. He talks about the fact that mobile handsets are gradually becoming more and more like wireless PCs. This change along with the movement within the service provider community is forcing the”Open” mantra within the mobile landscape.
He reflects disappointment behind the fact that even though carriers are beginning to listen, they have not welcomed this with open arms (no pun intended). I am in complete agreement with his recommendation to the carriers to adopt the well established internet/PC business models.
I have mentioned this in a previous post. Carriers are inching towards the “Open” thought process versus taking the bull by the horns. Its simply a strategy where they are hedging their bets with a safe approach.
Yes I understand that they do have a lot of responsibility with the service. Even if they get past the thought that going “Open” won’t hurt their business, they are still worried about security and privacy. Carriers are concerned about the fact that Open models will lead to malicious content on the device, which results in a bad experience and increased customer support calls.
I agree that, within the current mentality these problems do exist. However these emanate from the very nature of the current wireless landscape. We can draw parallels to the PC industry here and see the difference. Within the PC world users buy hardware from one vendor, bandwidth from other and software from a whole different group (no Apple doesn’t count). If a certain 3rd party software fails the hardware manufacturer or the bandwidth provider isn’t responsible for it. Bear in mind that this approach does not discount the operating system manufacturer from offering secure application behavior models.
The mobile landscape in this country will have to completely move towards this thought process. Let the users decide what they want on their handsets. Give them the option to install whatever software they want. This is with the understanding that they have complete responsibility of their actions. If this is an aggressive approach, I say start with offering both models and let the users decide. All in all, give subscribers the power to make the choice.
Otherwise we will have services, as O’Reilly says “Little Less Closed”…
Image courtesy W3C
