OTA Matures

Over-the-air (OTA) provisioning has been around for years,
but the speed at which handset makers are incorporating various
versions of the technology may come as a surprise.

These days, you can expect most phones are shipping with some kind of over-the-air (OTA) technology built in, but you might not know which flavor it is.

Get ready for the Acronym Express: OMA CP, which stands for the Open Mobile Alliance’s client provisioning; OMA DM, which is OMA device management; and FOTA, or firmware over-the-air update. Each represents some form of OTA, and they’re all associated with yet another acronym – mobile device management (MDM).

To get an idea of what’s what, 34% of handsets shipped worldwide in the second quarter of 2007 supported FOTA, up from 28% in the first quarter, according to Ovum. OMA CP was supported in 45% of handsets, and OMA DM was supported in 23% of handsets shipped. Industry insiders generally agree that OMA DM is emerging as the standard that will replace the legacy OMA CP. Even the CDMA camp, which historically used IOTA, or Internet-based OTA, is moving toward OMA DM.

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