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Striking the Right Balance with Open Source Platforms

By Richard Kinder
VP of Technology and New Business for Europe
Red Bend Software

Red Bend recently exhibited at Symbian Exchange and Exposition 2009 in London. As expected, attendance was down this year given the economic situation, but likely also in part from the fading excitement surrounding the establishment of the Symbian Foundation, which was big news at last year’s event. In many areas, the Symbian Foundation is ahead of the schedule they set themselves. For example, its kernel has been released under the Eclipse Public License. One should not underestimate the amount of work that has gone into an achievement such as this. As with any “new” platform, a major proof point is the availability of devices running on it. Once this happens, I am sure that there will be renewed enthusiasm for the show, but by then, who knows how far the iPhone, Blackberry and Android devices will have evolved.

All is not lost for Symbian yet. It has been successful in enabling delivery of smartphone functionality at increasingly lower device price points, but the industry has shifted its focus to usability and features. As Apple’s iPhone has proven, even in a down economy, consumers will pay for the right high-end smartphone with the right user experience. In the case of Samsung, which already has its own robust midrange solution, Symbian will need to offer something unique and compelling for the manufacturer to build on its platform. For Symbian to be successful, its platform must evolve and offer higher-end features in a way that is easily accessible to consumers in order to close the gap with Android and the iPhone. To do this, they must motivate their contributors to add value in the right areas.

The challenges for an open-source platform aren’t limited to Symbian. A key challenge is that of clear and fair governance rules. Each community has different takes on governance, making their challenges unique. Take Google’s Android, for example. Android is available under an open-source license but some do not consider it an open source project. The platform is controlled by Google, and a majority of the contributions are made by Google. While this approach has some advantages, it is difficult for a contributor to make a real difference to the platform and speed its innovation. It’s important to remember that the core ethos of what open source offers is a platform for somebody with an idea to share that idea with other people. Open source brings together communities of like-minded people and should give them a forum to communicate in a way that is natural to them—therefore, lending itself to driving innovation. However, open source has often struggled to shape its “in-the-moment” innovation into cohesive robust projects. To be successful, open-source platforms will need to find the right balance between in-the-moment features and the slow-but-structured development approach of traditional mobile platforms. Key to this is governance rules that shape the community around the platform.

So which open source smartphone platform will ultimately strike that right balance? At this point, you can’t ignore the Symbian Foundation. Nokia’s volumes and desire to drive usability and new features into the category previously serviced by S40 should not be underestimated. With Android, we’re seeing a broad variety of devices at various price points, and it is interesting to see Android scale from the very high end to cost-sensitive feature phones. The LiMo platform has had a big boost during recent months with the announcement of Vodafone 360 and the use of that platform to power the lead products from Samsung. Lastly, other efforts like Maemo and Intel’s Moblin may have an impact in the longer term.

There will be no shortage of compelling smartphone products, based on varied platforms with differing governance models, usability and features, available in 2010. Coupled with this explosion of platform choice will be an implosion in smartphone average selling prices, with the possible exception of the iPhone. Competitive pressure will drive down smartphone prices as well as consumers demanding more for less. Above all, device manufacturers must consider the technical and commercial impact of their platform choices as never before in order to acquire a new customer base and keep the customers they have. ¡Viva la revolucion!

Labels: 360, Android, Blackberry, iPhone, LiMo, Maemo, Moblin, Red Bend, S40, Symbian, Vodafone

posted by Red Bend @ Sunday, November 29, 2009 - 9:36 PM 0 Comments