Open to alternatives

In case you haven't heard, openness is the latest rage of the mobile world. Open networks, open devices, open application certification — the status quo is no longer in effect. At least that's the message mobile operators are touting throughout North America. For the thousands of developers looking to break into mobile phones, this openness means different things, but its meaning is lost to most who couldn't care less who's guarding the gate as long as millions of eager consumers wait on the other side.

In speaking with developers for this month's cover story on openness, it was interesting how many times Apple's iPhone Application Store, the archetypical walled garden, was cited as an example of an open mobile ecosystem. Despite Apple's approval process and the level of control it exerts over developer submissions, many people pointed out that the App Store is highly accessible and a significant departure from carriers' traditional practices. And, as it did for most things in wireless, Apple changed the development game. Furthermore, consumers have shown — voting with more than 2 billion Apple app downloads — that they don't care about openness either.

Things have clearly changed for developers since Apple came on the scene. The small “Freds in the sheds” have as much a shot at getting app store placement as the largest developers. The revenue share has also swayed in the favor of developers, with operators taking only 30% of the profits on average, and time to market has significantly sped up, as operators let down their guard on the review process. The result of these changes has been that developers are more excited about building apps for the mobile ecosystem in general, said Chetan Sharma, president of Chetan Sharma Consulting.

“Openness is in the eye of the developer,” he said. “If the application only requires access to a location or graphics [application programming interface], then for practical purposes [Apple] is open enough; you really don't need anything else. If you require access to the address book, access to the native voice APIs or anything else, that might not be open at that given point. … Holistically, even two or three years ago, basic GPS was locked down on most devices. If it was open, it was only available to a certain set of developers the carrier chose. More things are open now, but are they as open as they can be? Certainly not.”

All of the carriers have committed to some form of openness, whether it be in the networks and the devices they will accept or the applications and services they will offer. They are just beginning to crack open their doors, so it still remains to be seen how they define open versus how they actually practice it. However it ends up, these developers, who spanned the gaming, greeting card and social networking industries, made it clear that whether or not they believe open is a revolutionary concept or an industry buzzword, they don't really care. Reach and return on investment trump everything else. If that means climbing a 100-foot wall or walking right in, they'll do it if reach and ROI are the reward.

Read about new tech developments in wireless in “NFC mobile phone set to explode.” ▸ TelephonyOnline.com/mobile-apps