Robots and Apples Destroy Carrier Gardens
September 24, 2008
(2 votes, average: 5 out of 5)
Loading ...The new Google Android based phones are just about to arrive, and a viral fever of information and rumors are starting to spread like the plague. Will the new phones kill the iPhone? What features will the Google phones have? Will the phones be locked to T-Mobile or will other carriers and device
manufacturers have a chance to build Android phones? Well, the rumors will soon be put to rest. But this is only the beginning of a much bigger story: how the iPhone and gPhones mark a significant shift in the way wireless carriers operate today and what they will be able to support and offer in the future.
While some remain fixated on whether the new T-Mobile Android phone is an “iPhone Killer,” I’m transfixed by how both devices are killing the old telecom model and replacing it with something much more dynamic and innovative. The new Android phones won’t kill Apple, nor will the iPhone kill the drive to build newer and more creative devices. But they are both forever changing the way we all view mobile devices and what we use them for. And they are both essentially killing the notion of the wireless carriers as “Phone” companies.
Putting the over hyped war between the iPhone and Android aside, both devices meld applications, the Internet, and new technology to make wireless data instantly available to users in an intuitive and less complicated way that previously phones were capable of. This is an advance for the industry and will enable carriers to significantly grow their wireless data revenues. The phones also bypass the carriers and allow the user to buy content, music, and applications of all sorts from stores not owned by the carriers. No longer will the phone company control which web sites are supported, which applications can be downloaded, and what features a phone should have. Apple and Google are pushing for a fundamental shift in what the device manufacturers and the carriers are responsible for and what the users are able to do with their phones.
The carriers themselves may be clinging to the last vestiges of their walled garden approach to data and content - attempting to control the devices, the content, all billing, and the user experience. The iPhone/Android phone models break the wall between content and billing. The carriers will continue to bill for usage, but Apple, Google, and others are finally able to offer and bill for applications, music, ring tones, and other user downloadable items.
It is inevitable that device manufacturers will become increasingly independent from the carriers and the carriers will be forced to focus more on their underlying services (the wireless data networks and phone service) and less on the support and billing of the individual phones and content.
Imagine if the carriers held the same model on the wired Internet that they do on the wireless Internet - they’d want to sell you your PC and all software and web sites that you visit. But that model of business just isn’t scalable. Devices and software need to be sold and supported by their manufacturers, not the carriers. In the end, the carriers will have to give up on the idea of total control of their networks. In return, they will reap the benefits of increased data usage and lower support costs. Their walled gardens will wither and die and be replaced by the wild gardens of imagination and innovation.
Instead of falling into the hype and hyperbole of one device being a killer of another, let’s instead look at the much bigger story of how both of these devices will help usher in a new way of doing business for the wireless carriers and a new way of looking at what wireless devices are and what they are capable of. In the end, we will all benefit from lush new landscaping of the modern mobile garden.
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[...] Robots and Apples Destroy Carrier Gardens - The new Google Android phone and the Apple iPhone are revolutionary, but challenge the established model of Wireless phone companies. [...]