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Reflecting on Mobile World Congress 2009

Below are some highlights from Red Bend Software members who participated in the four-day Mobile World Congress 2009 event in Barcelona.

Lori Sylvia, EVP of Marketing, and Morten Grauballe, EVP of MSM Platforms
App stores created a lot of noise at Mobile World Congress. Every OEM and platform provider is getting into the app store game. But the pundits are debating the wrong points. It’s not whether app stores should be closed systems from the OEMs or run by operators for the mass market. It’s not which runtime environment should win, in order help developers reduce costs and gain scale. We’ve learned by now that the mobile industry is not one size fits all, not one business model fits all. I think this highly competitive market over the next three years at least will continue to see all of the above: platform-specific app stores, OEM closed systems, operator branded storefronts and myriad development environments.

The real issue is how to let ISVs build and deploy applications that can generate new revenue streams for OEMs as well as operators from the nearly 3 billion mobile phones in use. To truly unlock this potential, ISVs need to break the dependency that applications have to be developed for specific devices. By enabling mobile phone software to be customized on demand over the air throughout the handset lifecycle, developers can innovate and consumers can choose handsets, services and applications.

Gang Shen, Director of Sales, China
Some operators announced plans to take on mobile widgets to help improve app stores. China Mobile, for example, showed a demo of a widget at Mobile World Congress. I expect this kind of service engine will become more popular and welcomed by both operators and customers.

Another interesting highlight at Mobile World Congress is that more small brands than I expected showed some amazing phones, which use the Chinese ODM/DH solution.

John Pratt, Director of Sales, Europe
Control seems to be the big issue on everyone’s mind at Mobile World Congress. As handset manufactures and operators begin to launch app stores to generate incremental revenue from software sales, everyone wants control over this service and to either directly receive revenue or be compensated for their role in the value chain. The race for even cooler handsets packed with more features and capabilities continued, but the real story is who will win the race to control app stores. It appears that handset manufactures and software vendors have an early lead, with the likes of Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Microsoft and Google all promoting their stores, but the sleepy giant who owns the end customer (i.e., operators) might have the last say.

Companies are also in a constant battle for control over what platform developers choose to develop their apps on as all the major app store companies have SDKs and are aggressively trying to attract application developers. Developers are no longer seen as someone in the backroom, but rather someone who can create that one app that generates significant interest and eyeballs that will ultimately help generate revenue and promote brand awareness.

Mobile World Congress demonstrated that the industry is once again going through quite a transition, and it will be interesting to see who will win the race for control over attracting developers and delivering app stores to maintain and grow brand loyalty.

Labels: device management, DM, firmware, FOTA, Google, OMA-DM, Red Bend, standards