I’ve just received an email post from our ‘man in the field’, Peter Sells, Knitware’s very own mobile phone expert. He’s currently wandering the halls of this years (2008) Mobile World Congress exhibition in Barcelona. Over to you Peter…
Day 1 - The iPhone effect.
Hall 8 is the handset hall, a cathedral dedicated to the god of convergence. We are most definitely in the Post iPhone age. Samsung, LG Sony Ericsson are all touting touchscreen media devices that attempt to mimic - whilst being careful not to fully replicate - Apple’s seductive UI. Perhaps Apple should be flattered by this homage, but really they should be worried. Samsung can knock these babies out way cheaper than Team Jobs. Soon, or at least “quarter 2″, I can buy a device without the commitment, without subsiding the handset, that easily runs all the 3rd party software, and is nearly, but not quite, as sexy as the iPhone.
The fanboys will sneer at their crude attempts at Cover Flow, how the scrolling effect lacks inertia, how the case doesn’t quite look like it’s been milled and polished by hand. Samsung et al don’t care about fanboys. They care about the 990 million handsets to be sold this year to the rest of us.
Dictatorship is disruptive. And good.
It’s the year 2008 and the fragmented state of the PC market is still stifling innovation. With 700 versions of hardware and 70 different operating systems, the costs attached to developing much beyond a very simple word processor are prohibitive. Wordstar has been ported 500 times - it’s brilliant, the new version even allows you to create documents users of other PC’s can read.
Why does everyone still hate Microsoft? Bill is a smart geek who has created a monster, albeit one based on the colossus that is Windows. The dominance of this Operating System has allowed software and hardware developers to create to a standard, has reduced development and investment risks significantly, and powered a massive economy of scale that means your local PC World staff are regularly amazed at how low their laptop prices are. Dodgy monopolistic marketing practices aside, dictatorships aren’t always a bad thing - bloody good roads those Romans.
Compare that to the mobile industry - the fact that this show spills itself across eight halls is partly testament to how fragmented it is. Symbian, Qualcomm, Windows Mobile etc attempting to lure handset manufacturers to use their OS, whilst they themselves attempt to differentiate themselves using proprietary hardware. It’s a mess, confusing for the user and impossible to manage efficiently for anyone in the value chain - including content providers (that’ll be the brands reference). Only yesterday Arun Sarin (Mr Vodafone himself) was complaining about the number of OS’s in the market.
Android is Googles mobile phone operating system and is an attempt to be Windows for mobile (not Windows Mobile) - and since Google aren’t in the device OS game, here - you can have it for free. This is probably A Good Thing. The free bit is inevitable of course - apart from the fact everything is free from Google (not the ads obviously), Google’s disruptive practice relies on giving the user real value for free and piggybacking with user-relevant advertising. This time of course they’re one (or two) steps removed from the user, but in mobile if you wanna get to the user you gotta go through the hardware and/or the operator. They’ve tried the operator - Google search is available on most portals. They’ve been unable to monetize it - people don’t browse like they do online. Time to get in bed with the handset makers. These guys aren’t going to talk to you if you want a fee per handset sold.
The golden goose is location based services and targeted advertising. Their online search has brought the world to you, now they want to bring your world to you. (Yeah ok, I’ll never make a copywriter). Download Google maps to your phone and click My Location - clever eh? It doesn’t take much to realise a location aware device can play a big role in your life. And a big role for brands you’re near to.
So Google are attempting to disrupt the contented but dysfunctional union of hardware and OS suppliers. The problem is you need a shed load of disruption to trouble a $1 trillion industry where everybody (you’re excused Motorola) is making money. That’s why they’re also attempting to prise open Operator control by becoming one themselves.
I hope they succeed for two reasons. Firstly, any attempt to reduce fragmentation in this industry should be applauded because this will drive innovation, and secondly because disruption is exciting - and the 60,000 suits here look like they could do with a large dose of excitement. Myself included.
P.S. Android was brilliantly PR’d but the reality is a dead looking 80’s calculator in a plastic box, labelled ‘Android Prototype’. It will get better.
Loading ...
Post a comment