Introduction
Rather than including one whole chapter, we include below sections from different parts of the book which give a better flavour about the contents.
Why focus an innovative component?
We believe that if you are a grassroots developer/garage developer in the Mobile data industry – your service/application must include an innovative component. Further, competitive advantage can often be availed through opportunities at the ‘fringe’ i.e. combining more than one elements. To understand this argument – we must consider three aspects. Firstly ‘what’s a garage’? Secondly ‘the hurdles that an innovator needs to overcome in terms of revenue models’ and finally ‘Why do opportunities exist on the fringe for new entrants who do not have a competitive position in terms of brand, exclusive content etc?’
When used in this context, a garage includes an entity or individual who has an unfavourable negotiating position with the Mobile operator. It’s easier to explain the above in context of the converse i.e. entities who have a favourable position with respect to Mobile operators. These include – well known brands like ‘coke’, large communities like ‘Friends1 Reunited’, unique content like ‘CNN’ and anyone who has a large amount of money to spend!. Unless they have a unique proposition, practically everyone else is in the ‘garage’ (even if they are venture funded) because they are approaching the operator from an unfavourable negotiating position. Thus, it’s a large garage!
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This situation means that you need to differentiate. You cannot take on the existing players head-on. This is a large market. It’s a market that will not thrive unless effective partnerships are formed. Thus, there is a need for new players and new partners in the value chain. However, starting ‘in the garage’ as we define it above implies your strategy has to be different from that adopted by entities that are ‘not in the garage’.
1 http://www.friendsreunited.com/
So what does 'OpenGardens' mean?
In this book, we discuss our vision, which we call ‘OpenGardens’. This is not an anti operator stance. Rather, we are looking at the same problem from a different perspective. The title ‘OpenGardens’ evokes a variety of responses – ranging from the open source evangelist who gets misty-eyed thinking of ‘Linux on every Mobile device’ to the Mobile operator who insists – ‘There are no walled gardens!'
‘Openness’ itself can mean many things
a) Openness of access for the customer (i.e. the ability to access any content from their Mobile device)
b) Openness of platforms (for example a level playing field for third party applications as compared to the provider’s applications) or
c) ‘Open source’ as defined by http://www.opensource.org/docs/definition_plain.php
Open source is likely to be used in an OpenGardens application. Similarly, the ability of customers to access the Internet from their Mobile device is a favorable condition for the OpenGardens environment. However, our definition of ‘OpenGardens’ refers mainly to ‘openness of platforms’.
By ‘platform’, in the Mobile applications context, we mean the Mobile operator’s infrastructure. An OpenGardens ecosystem is a holistic/inclusive environment, which could foster the creation of next generation utility led (as opposed to existing entertainment led) Mobile applications. These applications could often span multiple technologies/concepts and are created by ‘assembling together’ a number of existing applications. We call an application built on these principles an ‘OpenGardens’ application.
Technologically, in its ultimate form, this approach can be viewed as 'API enabling’ a Telecoms network. API (Applications Programming Interface) is the software that enables service provision by the Mobile operator. The external application can make a software call via the published API, thereby creating a 'plug and play' ecosystem. The API model is also called by other names such as ‘networked model’, ‘Bazaar model’ or ‘web services model’.
However, Open APIs are a subset of OpenGardens and are not synonymous with OpenGardens. We do not foresee a ‘big bang’ opening of the telecoms platform. The challenge is to work within the existing environment and understand the phased opening up of the platform and the opportunities that this will afford us.
Whilst open APIs are ideal for OpenGardens applications even if platforms aren't always open, we can still create applications, that span multiple elements (albeit not easily). Such applications are possible even today. They blur the boundaries between the Internet and the Mobile Internet. They require a different mindset and a true understanding of ‘Mobility’. Finally, Openness – has two facets – commercial and technical. Hence, this book covers both.
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A word of caution
The discussion in the previous section is not the only source of concern for the innovator. The Telecoms environment and its slow moving, complex decision-making processes perplex most developers. This is more so with a pure marketing driven idea that is likely to be a concept only (no code) and is not defensible (i.e. can be easily copied). Hence, a word of caution is needed before we delve deeper into the subject. When we first discussed the idea of this book with a well-known Telecoms industry veteran, he said that the book should come with a ‘Health warning’. Keep away! Too many have gone down this path with visions of gold rush ‘la Klondike’ but have died a snowy death. If you are like us, you will keep going anyway but let’s explain what his view is – and why it deserves careful thought before you do indeed proceed.
Here is a brutally frank paraphrased view point, coming from a Telecoms industry insider -
“Telecoms has always been a profitable business for the operator and this extends to the Mobile network. In it’s early stage, and even today, Mobile is still more about voice than about data.
In most countries, telecoms/Mobile have been a monopoly – with simple services, which did not need to be marketed actively.
In spite of the setbacks from the dot-com mania and the ‘momentary lapse of reason’ with 3G licenses, voice is still popular – both on the landline and the Mobile environment and will continue to be so.
In the dot com world, there were calls to ‘subsidize Telecoms’ for the ‘greater good’. No industry can afford to do that and in retrospect, the proponents of ‘free’ are assigned to the digital graveyard of the dot-com industry. With the rise of the Internet, the fixed line Telecoms operators were relegated to being ‘data pipes’. (In the sense that the big stars of the Internet were Yahoo, Google, Amazon etc. who sold services over a network operated by the fixed line Telecoms operator. These businesses were far more profitable but the fixed line Telecoms operator ended up being the ‘data pipe’ and seeing little revenue.)
When Mobile data came along, initially, there were hopes of ‘we missed the Internet, but we will NOT miss this one!’ There was, and still is, a tendency to ‘go it alone’ without partners. It is debatable as to how much value partners add - unless they happen to be well known brands like Warner and Disney. Most ideas are not new and most concepts presented to Mobile operators are merely at the concept/planning stage.
While this is changing, the fact remains that barring SMS, Mobile data revenues are very low at the moment (early 2004).
Does this mean that the Mobile operators do not need partners at all?
No...
There are three reasons why they do
a) Firstly, although Data is taking longer to become mainstream, no one denies that it’s going to be a huge source of revenue for all concerned
b) ‘You never know who walks in through the door’ – May be there is a killer app out there?
c) Related to (b) – competitive intelligence – someone else may deploy a killer application first”
Although this frank viewpoint comes from the limited perspective of a Telecoms Operator, it is well worth taking it into consideration whilst you are developing your application. You should also contrast this with the ‘OpenGardens’ approach, which deals with creating new, composite applications from existing applications, industries.
Standards and industry bodies
Developers have a phrase called ‘RTFM’ – which politely put means – ‘Read the flying manual’. As a Telecoms / Mobile developer, in addition to manuals, you must also be familiar with standards which are vast in themselves. In this section, we list a set of standards bodies that you should be familiar with for development of Telecoms applications.
Because we are interacting at the cusp of the Internet, Telecoms and the Mobile Internet - there are three sets of standards you must be familiar with.
Internet standards: Which govern the Internet world
Telecoms standards: For the air interface and
The open Mobile alliance: for Mobile services.
The Internet engineering task force (IETF) www.ietf.org manages standards concerning issues such as packet routing, transport control and others relating to the core Internet itself.
Standardisation related to the air interface is managed by bodies such as the ‘Third generation partnership program’ (3gpp) www.3gpp.org. The 3GPP is the place to go for all 3G, GSM and GPRS standards.
Open Mobile alliance http://www.openMobilealliance.org/ (OMA) is the first port of call for all standards related to Mobile services. OMA was formed by an amalgamation of a number of industry bodies such as the WAP forum, location interoperability forum etc. This is a positive achievement and should be commended since it makes development easier for all of us.
As per the OMA web site, the mission of the Open Mobile Alliance is to facilitate global user adoption of Mobile data services by specifying
market driven Mobile service enablers that ensure service interoperability across devices, geographies, service providers, operators, and networks, while allowing businesses to compete through innovation and differentiation.
Other industry bodies that you may need to be familiar with include
• The GSM association - http://www.gsmworld.com/index.shtml
• The Mobile data association - http://www.mda-Mobiledata.org/
• Parlay – www.parlay.org
• UMTS forum - http://www.umts-forum.org
• WiFi Alliance http://wi-fi.org/OpenSection/index.asp
• Bluetooth SIG – www.bluetooth.org
• Symbian – www.symbian.com
• BREW - http://BREW.qualcomm.com/BREW/en/
• The Mobile marketing association - http://www.mmaglobal.com/
• http://www.icstis.org/ Independent Committee for the Supervision of Standards of Telephone Information Services
Java is governed by the Java community process, which releases JSRs (specification requests). The URL for JCP is
http://www.jcp.org/en/home/index
