Last week OSiM World (Open Source in Mobile) brought together the entire open source ecosystem to debate and plan the future of the industry. Philipp Deprez, who we welcome herewith as mobile zeitgeist guest author, was attending this event and gives us a short summary.
OSiM is supposed to be the definitive on Open Source in Mobile.
The event featured a line-up of the big names in the mobile industry such as Google, t-mobile, Vodafone, Orange, Telefonica, Nokia, Motorola, HTC, Symbian, LiMo, Linux, OMTP and many more. It was a mix of one-man-show presentations (which, by nature, have a tendency to be about the employer of the speaker) and panel discussions (more fruitful). The second day brought up WIPJam – the largest mobile developer event in open source – a six hours so-called unpanel with no powerpoints nor ties. One attendant wearing a tie actually had the choice between taking off his tie or otherwise to leave the hall (take a wild guess what the gentleman chose). Organizers here were Wireless Industry Partnership (WIP). Special congrats to Caroline Lewko and Thibaut Rouffineau for this successful session!
What were the overall highlights?
Prospects and the money
The representatives from the open development model Symbian, LiMo and Linux highlighted the prospects of open source in terms of innovations and diversities of services as well as time-to -market. But they remained cloudy in answering the question of how to make money with it – “we have to find a way”, “the user will pay for the service” and “you will get back your investment” were some statements on that.
Fragmentation and gate keeping
Operators, however, went about the risk of fragmentation – “what about quality assurance”? As they are the first to be called by the customer in case of questions or problems, they often find themselves in the role of a gate keeper. But they admitted having taken the lesson from walled garden times and that open is the key to give as much momentum as possible to the mobile ecosystem. Nevertheless they see themselves as a key player in this race.
Teamwork and emotion
Dave Neary, from GNOME Foundation, in his session pointed out the essentials in regard to the complexity of the mobile value chain. Free software leads to open controversies, participation and teamwork and – emotion! Easy to say but what about the money? It would have been interesting to go deeper into this discussion but time ran out.
There were some main topics which were discussed throughout almost all sessions. They reflect the issues that open source in mobile is dealing with these days:
- Is fragmentation to bring innovation – or chaos?
- Quality assurance (including all aspects of user experience, best fit into the user’s lifestyle)
- Are Apps the new ringtones?
- Monetization (where is the money?)
- Marketing (distribution of apps / billing)
To conclude this abstract, it is notable that there is much momentum in the mobile ecosystem coming from open source. At OSiM the discussions were both objective and professional at the same time, which helps getting opinions together and to make up one’s mind.
Above all, one thing became clear during this event: People are in this field because they enjoy it. It’s definitely fun to be in the mobile industry!
About the author: Philipp took his professional experience in different fields of the mobile and online world. He started at Zurich based OEM Ascom, where he did research in the dual band handset market. After that and after studying engineering management in Karlsruhe he turned to online portals and transaction services at Commerzbank in Asia. He was based in Shanghai and managed the local requirements for online banking systems including the roll out throughout the Asian branches. At Tomorrow Focus AG and Smaato Inc. he learned about the character of mobile advertising. He understands mobile advertising as a service that offers interaction between people and products. Hence he feels confident that mobile advertising will develop. It will then be seamlessly integrated in the user’s media consumption and therefore will perfectly fit in the daily lifestyle.
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