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Why would a mobile handset maker acquire a decade old mobile operating system developer and then let it go open source? We need but look for two pointers as to why Nokia would try to shore up its position in the market by acquiring Symbian: the iPhone and Android.
Om Malik does a great job of analysing the situation. It’s time the phone industry realized there is a ‘new mobile reality’ at hand.
Tags: Android, iPhone, Nokia, SymbianThis morning I attended the first day of Mobile Content World in Sydney.
It’s an interesting time to have the mobile industry talking about content in Australia, given the pending arrival of the Apple iPhone, especially since it will be supported by no less than three carriers.
The first panel session, after the usual keynotes, was a cacaphony of carrier reps. I couldn’t help feeling, that as much as they tried to stay off the path, they were deer in the iPhone’s headlights. The full browser experience is going to shake their businesses to their foundations.
As Google’s Nick Heller pointed out to me in the break, they are experiencing 10x the amount of search queries via the iPhone compared to any other mobile browser. That is a significant difference and one that will radically shape the user experience and concomitant ARPU for all of the players moving forward. Walled gardens, however much players like Telstra try to argue that they are open gardens, remain… well, …walled gardens and consumers will leave them in droves for the open web.
The mobile browser situation, however, is far from settled. A case in point is the $13M in Series B funding SkyFire has picked up in a round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners to develop a downloadable browser to work across all mobile-device platforms.
This Mountain View company aims to replicate the PC experience on mobile handsets with an everything works mantra - Flash content, Web 2.0, Ajax etc.
Kleiner Perkins-iFund backed Pelago has also raised a $15M Series B to continue developing Whrrl, its mobile social network. MocoNews describes Whrrl as:
a mix between Facebook, City Search and Loopt. The social networking element is that you can share this information with friends, the directory part is that there’s a list of restaurants and events that your friends can rate and say whether they are going to or not, and the Loopt part is you can see what your friends are up to.
Clearly there is much afoot in this space. I’ll watch closely to see how the Australian carriers and mobile players shape up over the coming months as the iPhone permeates their ecosystem. Stay tuned…
[Picture courtesy of heritagefuture]
Tags: iPhone, Kleiner Perkins, Lightspeed, Mobile Content World, Pelago, SkyFire
Great news for Australians, many of whom have patiently waited and salivated over the iPhone phenomenon.
Their version will deliver a blistering 42 mbs via 3G. And it will be in stock from early June.
What’s more it will be available on three different networks and not be locked into a carrier walled garden. This has caused a bit of scurrying amongst the telcos who are quickly realizing that their lock and load approach has become redundant.
[via ChannelNews]
Tags: iPhone
Orb Networks has enabled TV on the iPhone. By installing the OrbLive app users can stream any video format to their iPhone.
There are a few hoops to go through before you can stream your favorite basketbal game though:
We understand that iPhone 2.0 will support video - will it go so far as supporting live TV streaming?
Tags: Apple, iPhone, Orb, TV
Benchmark Capital is reported to have invested in Tunewiki’s first round of funding.
This Israeli startup provides an iPhone app that syncrhonizes lyrics to music playing on the phone.
[via TechCrunch, picture courtesy of magnum_lady]
Tags: Benchmark Capital, iPhone, Venture Capital
I’ve covered DataPortability. I’m experimenting with Friendfeed. I share apps across my Macbook Pro and iPhone.
However, I still feel there is a long way to go before we reach true seamless interoperability of data, connections, applications and devices.
And so I am very excited by Microsoft’s preview beta launch of Live Mesh, a feed-centric programming model.
The promise is that:
Live Mesh puts you at the center of your digital world, seamlessly connecting you to the people, devices, programs, and information you care about - available wherever you happen to be.
That is a very noble sentiment. I applaud Ray Ozzie’s vision.
But wait a minute - this only works on devices running Microsoft software. I fully understand that they are only at beta. I also hear their plaintive cry, but we are bringing out Mac and mobile versions later this year.
Fail. They should have built in true interoperability from the get go, across all devices - period. Doing so in stages can only lead to a Here, there, everywhere patchwork.
UPDATE: Former Microsoftie Robert Scoble has gushed his views out. Yes I also like the dialogic RSS capability, by Robert you sum up why its a fail before its even out of the blocks:
Mac support? Coming in the future. Nokia support? Unclear. iPhone support? Ask Steve Jobs (translation: will be very limited due to Apple’s complete control of that platform). Firefox support? Yes! Linux support? What’s that?
[Via TechCrunch]
Tags: DataPortability, iPhone, Live Mesh, Macbook, Microsoft