Everything and the Mobile Software Universe…

During the last LiPS forum face to face meeting we had in Seoul (thanks again to Mizi Research, great organization), Access/Palmsource presented its Application framework, now Open-Sourced: Hiker, and one point has raised a little debat: it is fixing the way applications can be layered, interacting with each others (One running Application with the User Focus at a time, no multiple instance of the same application): so it is hard to implement some Vodaphone Live! use cases requring multiple launches of a same application like : You are in your Address Book, you recieve an sms, you answer, you look for a contact launching again your address book from the sms, the address book will be on top when you close it you are back to the sms and when you close the sms…you have your first address book below with the same state before the sms reception, at the beginning.
It’s not a secret, I’m a big old time palm fan, but now I’ve a better understanding of what is a phone and the industry around it: Hiker seems great and may bring good usability practices, etc BUT it will be difficult to fullfill some Operators or OEM requirements, cause it fixes the way the User Interactions have to be done: it reduces innovation (good discussion about that at MobHappy)
Apple has made an Apple phone from A to Z, from Software to Hardware (see this Michael Mace article if you were on another planet, and this nice round-up at TomSoft for the 58# Carnival)…but if you (as a phone manufacturer) want to make a phone you designed, chance you are an hardware company, and you make money with it:

• If your are an ODM, you have an OEM specification.
• If you are an OEM you have your own specifications, matured for years.
• If your are an OEM or ODM you may also have some Operators strong requirements or sometimes complete product specifications (Vodaphone Live!, NTT Docomo, or some iMode recomendation from Bouygues for example).

So:

• Either you will go shopping for an external software solution (like Moto with TTPcom and many ODM and some other big players)
• Or waste millions of dollars in an unmaintenable solution (I wont’t throw names here … even if the list is long). Because it is not your job.

If this external solution locks you in a single type of product, so in a niche…you are screwed, plus the royalties are high and the hardware minimums are stratospheric compared to the real phone market.

Choosing Access/Symbian/WinCE : Choosing the OS equal make a fixed and finished product:

• impossible to comply with operator specs
• same for OEM
• : it is why nokia has made s60 and SE bought UIQ (I often take as an example the Text Input specifications: it accounts for around 25% of a complete Phone UI specification….it is very hard to change it in high level OSes…but it is a big brand asset for many OEMs)

Your are not making your phone but a windows/palm one

Interestingly solutions coming from the US are more monolithic and impose a user experience (palm, winCE, sky mobile media has bought eSim an israeli company to have a kind of UI customization), compared to EU ones (symbian is nothing without a customization, Open- Plug, Digital Airways and TAT for UI, etc are all about customization, Qtopia in less extent)…there is certainly something cultural here (many time the “not invented here” prevails in the US leading to more integrated products but moonolithic, while EU is by nature more diverse and consensual…just a guess here). Somewhat related: good read at Vision Mobile about Mobile Linux.
At the end I’m not sure an Operator is really able to specify a full User Experience, focusing on usability (no no , it is not sarcastic ). Software companies, can do it in some extent, but at the end only OEM with strong brand assets, big worldwide tracking records of mature products for all cultures may know those little things that make the difference.

For sure new comers with good ideas (like Apple here) and a good knowledge of software AND hardware can do great stuff for a niche market…but selling to China, Arabic countries or India is another beast, it is a 2.7 billions users game!