Platform proliferation limiting mobile content?

So carriers have been preaching the need for platform standardization in the cellphone space for some time now, most notably with Vodafone's commitment to tossing anything that isn't Windows Mobile-, Symbian-, or Linux-based to the curb. The popular reasoning for the move, if you listen to the carriers explain it, is that the current sitch limits their ability to offer rich content and makes doing so significantly more expensive. Here's what we don't understand: only a small handful of mobile operating systems dominate carriers' smartphone offerings as it is -- Symbian (in its various flavors), Windows Mobile, Garnet, and BlackBerry -- and eliminating any one of those from the average carrier's lineup would rile up a healthy percentage of its customer base, while non-smartphone devices do a pretty good job unifying content as it is with Java, Flash, and the like. So what's the bellyaching all about? Are the carriers putting together a case for reducing handset offerings that are already, in some cases, embarrassingly anemic? Besides, the concern centers around their ability to offer content directly, a concern obviously rooted in profitmaking; some software publishers have apparently raised the same issue, but as long as every platform out there is shored up with a vibrant developer and enthusiast community, carrier-backed content can happily take a back seat as far as we're concerned.

[Via Slashdot]

[len @ Mar 12th 2007 3:12PM]

They can make an easier case for locking down the devices and selling you the things you could otherwise get much cheaper or free via third party applications if they could actually produce those applications themselves.

But because mobile development is hard, and cross-platform development harder, and few developers with this expertise are willing to work for greedy phone companies, they find the prospect of doing it themselves too expensive.

They should just accept their roll as a provider of commodity bandwidth and let the developers and device manufacturers give people what they want.

[dtrapp @ Mar 12th 2007 3:44PM]

http://www.heycool.com

You know, the mobile platform REALLY needs to expand before people get overworked on how they're going to monetize it, or serve new feature rich apps. It's just too slow on our networks in the States, and the phone screens are ridiculously small. However, you run into another problem which is, why not just carry a damn laptop if you want to browse the net.

[LS @ Mar 12th 2007 7:16PM]

having some limited experience of developing for J2ME i can tell you it's a right royal pain in the bollericks. You basically get all the overheads of developing for a Java platform (i.e. large resource requirements, slow performance) and non of the benefits (namely, write once deploy many). The amount of different JSR implementations across mobile devices that support the Java platform is mind boggling and a real c0ck for developing universal applications.

so i for one would welcome some more consistency, even if this means standardising on the technology already out there

[steve campbel @ Mar 13th 2007 10:26AM]

i use www.create-ringtone.com to create and send FREE custom ringtones, wallpaper, mp3 and video files to cell phones around the world

[Magallanes @ Mar 14th 2007 11:11AM]

And the funny about J2ME is that Java is powerful because it's portable... lol.

The best choice currently is to do a application for Symbian s60, cause the popularity of the cellphone.

[Satur9nine @ Mar 14th 2007 9:15PM]

The numerous platforms without a doubt is a headache for mobile development, and non-smartphones are even more to blame for completely failing on the promise of cross-compatibility.

Ever notice how many mobile "porting" companies have sprouted up thanks to Sun's inability to deliver on the promise of Java? Good luck trying to do something as simple as take a photo using J2ME on a cameraphone, its as if the carriers, the OEMs and Sun all sat down and figured out how to make the task as cumbersome, bug-ridden and inaccessible as possible.

Until the market is less fragmented you can forget about seeing any great kill-apps for your favorite mobile device, no thanks to Apple either for making yet another closed-development platform.