GUEST COMMENT: Breaking Barriers with Open Phones Symbian's David Wood argues that the wireless industry is ready for a mobile phone open standards movement. David Wood Symbian The year 2004 sees the coming of age of a third wave of mobile phones. The first wave was voice-centric mobile phones. Companies time and again performed wonders of optimization on the core feature of these phones -– their ability to provide great mobile voice communications. Successive generations of products improved their portability, battery life, reliability, signal handling, voice quality, ergonomics, price, and usability. In the process, mobile phones became arguably the most successful consumer electronics product in history. The second wave was rich-experience mobile phones. Instead of just conveying voice between mouth and ear, these phones provide a much richer sensory experience. High-resolution color screens convey data vividly and graphically; high-fidelity audio systems play media content such as ringtones and games. These phones combine multimedia with information and communications, to dramatic effect. But the best is yet to come. The primary characteristic of third wave mobile phones is their openness. Openness is an abstract concept, but one with huge and tangible consequences. The key point is that the growing intelligence on modern phones -– the smartness of the on-board hardware and software -– can now be readily accessed by add-on hardware and software. As a result, the range of applications and services that can be used on a phone isn't fixed at the time of manufacturing that phone, meaning new applications and services can be added afterwards. The phone is therefore programmable and can be even more personally tailored than before to suit a user’s needs and interests. Open phones allow a much wider array of companies and individuals to contribute to the value and attractiveness of the phone. The attractiveness of a phone to an end user is no longer determined by the various parties involved in the creation of that phone. Over-the-air (OTA) downloads and other late-binding mechanisms allow other companies and individuals to try out their ideas, delivering their applications and services directly to end users. Many of these ideas would seem unviable to merit inclusion in the phone at time of manufacture. However, the advantage of open phones is that there is more time and more opportunity, for all these new and innovative ideas to mature into advantageous, usable applications that can make a user's life easier –- whether it be over-the-air synchronization with a PC or checking traffic –- or more fun -– with 3D games or photo editing. It's innovation through openness. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Before anything else, a successful open phone platform must be an excellent voice-centric device and an excellent rich-experience phone. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The real power of open phones arises when the third party experimentation that is carried out for add-on services on one phone can be re-used for add-on services on other phones. This allows an enormous third party development ecosystem to form. These third parties are no longer tied to the fortunes of any one phone, or any one phone manufacturer. Moreover, applications that start their lives as add-ons for one phone, can be incorporated at time of manufacture in subsequent phones, including phones by other manufacturers. This depends on the commonality of the underlying programming platform. Open standards drive a virtuous cycle of research and development: numerous companies that can leverage each others’ prowess, skills, experience, and success. The degree of success of an open phone platform is closely linked to the degree to which the functionality of all lower levels of the software and hardware stacks in a phone can be accessed, modified, and augmented by add-on software and hardware. Java makes a good start. MIDP v1 allows modest access by add-on MIDlets to phone functionality, and MIDP v2 takes the situation further. However, for the foreseeable future, a native programming language such as C++ will remain the best way to access many of the lower level or deeper aspects of the on-board functionality. Native programming interfaces greatly multiply the overall opportunity. The main criterion for an open phone to be successful is the most basic one. Before anything else, such a phone must be an excellent voice-centric device and an excellent rich-experience phone –- the third wave must build on the first two, rather than take a step backwards. What’s different about 2004 is that, for the first time, all the ingredients are in place for the open phone virtuous cycle to thrive: savvy developers, advanced phone networks, and open or programmable smart phones that meet the above criteria and are already selling in millions. We can now anticipate "surprises as normal" –- innovative applications and services breaking through preconceptions to build handsomely upon the multimedia, information, and communications aspects of open phones. David Wood is Executive Vice President, Research for Symbian.