Mobile carriers sick of so many operating systems

Existence of dozens of operating systems hampers the growth of new services, mobile phone executives say.
The New York Times

The story "Mobile carriers sick of so many operating systems" published March 12, 2007 at 6:26 AM is no longer available on CNET News.

Content from The New York Times expires after 7 days.

[cbazza]

Just make Java work better.

Here is the thing, Java is OS agnostic and as Sun has recently
stated, Java is available in 1.5 billion phones today. So for
a developer's point of view, it is always better to code for one
platform (in this case Java) as opposed to a few. Problem is
Java is not the same at all and this fragmentation causes a
lot of problems and the wrong solution to this problem was
taken until now, namely getting developers to get their apps
certified. I call for all Java implementations to get certified
so that they are all the same regardless of OS; do this and
smaller companies will have no problems getting their software
to run on any newer cellphone.

Just look at Windows, it doesn't matter which hardware you use,
you write one Windows app and it works on all kinds of different
hardware and it wasn't designed to be portable, yet it makes
developer's life easier. Why can't the same be said for a system
that was designed for portability in the first place. To me Java
has been a failure in the cellphone market because with 1.5
billion devices out, there isn't much to show for in terms of
third party applications and innovation.

[vrrivaro]

Mak up your mind!

Is Java good or what? I am sorry, if you tell me that something had been deployed in 1.5 BILLION phones, it must be good.

You must be talking about your house's windows (which I do not know), as you are most certainly not talking about Microsoft Windows.

MS Windows certainly doesn't runs in all different kinds of hardware, only in x86 and x86-64. That's only two by anybodies count. It makes developper's life easier? I have heard way to many HORROR stories when porting from x86 to x86-64. It is *much* easier to port from one device running Java on a ARM processor to another running it on a PPC processor than to port from one device running Windows on a x86 to another on a x86-64 processor.

[cbazza]

Just make Java work better.

Here is the thing, Java is OS agnostic and as Sun has recently
stated, Java is available in 1.5 billion phones today. So for
a developer's point of view, it is always better to code for one
platform (in this case Java) as opposed to a few. Problem is
Java is not the same at all and this fragmentation causes a
lot of problems and the wrong solution to this problem was
taken until now, namely getting developers to get their apps
certified. I call for all Java implementations to get certified
so that they are all the same regardless of OS; do this and
smaller companies will have no problems getting their software
to run on any newer cellphone.

Just look at Windows, it doesn't matter which hardware you use,
you write one Windows app and it works on all kinds of different
hardware and it wasn't designed to be portable, yet it makes
developer's life easier. Why can't the same be said for a system
that was designed for portability in the first place. To me Java
has been a failure in the cellphone market because with 1.5
billion devices out, there isn't much to show for in terms of
third party applications and innovation.

[vrrivaro]

Mak up your mind!

Is Java good or what? I am sorry, if you tell me that something had been deployed in 1.5 BILLION phones, it must be good.

You must be talking about your house's windows (which I do not know), as you are most certainly not talking about Microsoft Windows.

MS Windows certainly doesn't runs in all different kinds of hardware, only in x86 and x86-64. That's only two by anybodies count. It makes developper's life easier? I have heard way to many HORROR stories when porting from x86 to x86-64. It is *much* easier to port from one device running Java on a ARM processor to another running it on a PPC processor than to port from one device running Windows on a x86 to another on a x86-64 processor.

[technewsjunkie]

STOP WHINING! Competition is GOOD!

Oh yes, it would be much easier for THEM if WE, as consumers had NO CHOICE, or innovation.
Haven't we paid a high enough price for a "one size fits ALL" solution?!

Yeah, that's a good idea! Nooooooo!

They should stop WHINING and let the BEST Ideas flourish.

[technewsjunkie]

STOP WHINING! Competition is GOOD!

Oh yes, it would be much easier for THEM if WE, as consumers had NO CHOICE, or innovation.
Haven't we paid a high enough price for a "one size fits ALL" solution?!

Yeah, that's a good idea! Nooooooo!

They should stop WHINING and let the BEST Ideas flourish.

[Llib Setag]

iPhone + MacOSX = New halo effect for Apple, Inc.

iPhone Realizes Steve's Dream to Exploit Mac OS

POSTED: Wednesday, March 14, 2007
FROM BLOG: Apple Matters - Apple Matters is a serious yet
irreverent look at all things Apple

If the iPhone succeeds, it will very quickly have numbers that
could dwarf the Mac and run down the iPod. That alone could
lead to a significant halo effect. But being a very visual device
with a sexy flavor of OS X running on it (unlike the iPods whose
interface now looks suddenly 1983 by comparison) this will
expose millions to the real Mac experience, especially, if as
expected, Leopard bears much similarity to the iPhone?s OS X.
In a marketing coup that, if you believe Steve, was partly luck
from having to announce early so the FCC wouldn?t reveal the
iPhone, Apple has had stunning marketing success of the iPhone
already. Expressions like ?most anticipated electronics device in
years? are not uncommon. Writers from all persuasions seem to
be lapping it up.

USAToday reported on Friday that the avalanche of headlines
and TV news stories about the iPhone?which hits the market in
June?already have generated $400 million in free publicity, says
Harvard Business School professor David Yoffie. ?No other
company has ever received that kind of attention for a product
launch,? Yoffie says. ?It?s unprecedented.?

Consider, too, the secondary effect of that publicity: the iPhone?s
halo effect will already be happening. Anyone who?s seen images
of the iPhone could already be curious to see more of that OS
and could be visiting their local Apple Store as a result.
Interestingly, the more I see the iPhone images, the more Tiger?s
GUI looks dated. The iPhone may mean Leopard will have to
carry a revamped GUI so those users don?t suffer a bit of an
anti-climax.

After years of banging their heads against the beige world of
Windows and PCs, one that couldn?t even garner much more
than a ?yippity doo? over the new significantly sexier Windows,
journalists seem genuinely excited about the iPhone. It appears
they see it as having greater significance than just in the phone
sector and may revolutionize the whole gadget market.

Apple has a history of its innovations transcending other
markets. The most memorable of recent years was the simple
colored translucent casing of the iMac, which became the
ubiquitous styling of everything from toasters to pencil
sharpeners. The iPhone has the potential to cause a total rethink
of the design of gadgetry of all kinds.

If, as hoped by Apple, it manages to sell 10 million iPhones in
the first twelve months, that more than doubles OS X?s presence
in consumer-land. In January, Apple announced it sold 1.6
million Macs in the previous quarter. Although that figure was
inflated by seasonal and other reasons, if we suggest Apple sells
6.4 million Macs per year, then adding 10 million OS X-carrying
iPhones increases OS X?s numbers to 16.4 million per year?a
whopping 156% increase in OS X?s presence.

Of course this is a bit of mathematorial gymnastica that doesn?t
take into account Windows? own mobile market share, but it
does lead to the second and more important advantage.

That same quarterly report had Apple selling 21 million iPods,
yet none of those exposed the user to the OS X experience, the
closest being using iTunes.

Yet, as my friend Halo Girl attests, that sampler in iTunes has
been enough to convince many to switch. Imagine then the
effect of using the iPhone?s interface? (Although expect future
iPods to also sport a trimmed down OS X.)

The iPhone will expose many to OS X who will be using it
alongside a decidedly sadder looking Windows, even Vista,
which despite Microsoft?s best efforts, still has the look and feel
of Windows. A sewer rat wearing Armani, you might say.
It?s not all one-way traffic for Apple, though. That spiffy looking
sewer rat could still spread a plague to stop Apple?s potential
juggernaut.

Mobile Vista on a phone device could seriously dent Apple?s
efforts. And as Windows 95 showed, even a 10 year head start
and an inferior product doesn?t mean anything. Despite what
we?d like to believe about users being more savvy nowadays,
1995 could easily be repeated simply because of the familiarity
of the ?W? word.

That same familiarity contributed to Microsoft?s success in the
handheld computing market. That is, Windows on PCs had a
significant halo effect on Windows-based PDA sales. (just look at
Palm today).

Apple has great potential to achieve the same but the other way
around, with the iPhone leading to sales of Macs. With its very
sexy GUI, the iPhone has the potential for a much more
significant halo effect than the iPod ever did, provided Apple
keeps on guard against that rat.

At MacWorld 1997, Steve said Apple?s two core assets are the
Apple brand and Mac OS. He described Mac OS as ?yet to be fully
exploited? and that ?at the core, Apple is about the Mac OS.? The
Mac OS has moved on to become Mac OS X, but I don?t doubt
that that still holds true.

Ten years on, it looks like we are finally seeing the realization of
Steve?s desire to fully exploit the Mac OS.

[Llib Setag]

iPhone + MacOSX = New halo effect for Apple, Inc.

iPhone Realizes Steve's Dream to Exploit Mac OS

POSTED: Wednesday, March 14, 2007
FROM BLOG: Apple Matters - Apple Matters is a serious yet
irreverent look at all things Apple

If the iPhone succeeds, it will very quickly have numbers that
could dwarf the Mac and run down the iPod. That alone could
lead to a significant halo effect. But being a very visual device
with a sexy flavor of OS X running on it (unlike the iPods whose
interface now looks suddenly 1983 by comparison) this will
expose millions to the real Mac experience, especially, if as
expected, Leopard bears much similarity to the iPhone?s OS X.
In a marketing coup that, if you believe Steve, was partly luck
from having to announce early so the FCC wouldn?t reveal the
iPhone, Apple has had stunning marketing success of the iPhone
already. Expressions like ?most anticipated electronics device in
years? are not uncommon. Writers from all persuasions seem to
be lapping it up.

USAToday reported on Friday that the avalanche of headlines
and TV news stories about the iPhone?which hits the market in
June?already have generated $400 million in free publicity, says
Harvard Business School professor David Yoffie. ?No other
company has ever received that kind of attention for a product
launch,? Yoffie says. ?It?s unprecedented.?

Consider, too, the secondary effect of that publicity: the iPhone?s
halo effect will already be happening. Anyone who?s seen images
of the iPhone could already be curious to see more of that OS
and could be visiting their local Apple Store as a result.
Interestingly, the more I see the iPhone images, the more Tiger?s
GUI looks dated. The iPhone may mean Leopard will have to
carry a revamped GUI so those users don?t suffer a bit of an
anti-climax.

After years of banging their heads against the beige world of
Windows and PCs, one that couldn?t even garner much more
than a ?yippity doo? over the new significantly sexier Windows,
journalists seem genuinely excited about the iPhone. It appears
they see it as having greater significance than just in the phone
sector and may revolutionize the whole gadget market.

Apple has a history of its innovations transcending other
markets. The most memorable of recent years was the simple
colored translucent casing of the iMac, which became the
ubiquitous styling of everything from toasters to pencil
sharpeners. The iPhone has the potential to cause a total rethink
of the design of gadgetry of all kinds.

If, as hoped by Apple, it manages to sell 10 million iPhones in
the first twelve months, that more than doubles OS X?s presence
in consumer-land. In January, Apple announced it sold 1.6
million Macs in the previous quarter. Although that figure was
inflated by seasonal and other reasons, if we suggest Apple sells
6.4 million Macs per year, then adding 10 million OS X-carrying
iPhones increases OS X?s numbers to 16.4 million per year?a
whopping 156% increase in OS X?s presence.

Of course this is a bit of mathematorial gymnastica that doesn?t
take into account Windows? own mobile market share, but it
does lead to the second and more important advantage.

That same quarterly report had Apple selling 21 million iPods,
yet none of those exposed the user to the OS X experience, the
closest being using iTunes.

Yet, as my friend Halo Girl attests, that sampler in iTunes has
been enough to convince many to switch. Imagine then the
effect of using the iPhone?s interface? (Although expect future
iPods to also sport a trimmed down OS X.)

The iPhone will expose many to OS X who will be using it
alongside a decidedly sadder looking Windows, even Vista,
which despite Microsoft?s best efforts, still has the look and feel
of Windows. A sewer rat wearing Armani, you might say.
It?s not all one-way traffic for Apple, though. That spiffy looking
sewer rat could still spread a plague to stop Apple?s potential
juggernaut.

Mobile Vista on a phone device could seriously dent Apple?s
efforts. And as Windows 95 showed, even a 10 year head start
and an inferior product doesn?t mean anything. Despite what
we?d like to believe about users being more savvy nowadays,
1995 could easily be repeated simply because of the familiarity
of the ?W? word.

That same familiarity contributed to Microsoft?s success in the
handheld computing market. That is, Windows on PCs had a
significant halo effect on Windows-based PDA sales. (just look at
Palm today).

Apple has great potential to achieve the same but the other way
around, with the iPhone leading to sales of Macs. With its very
sexy GUI, the iPhone has the potential for a much more
significant halo effect than the iPod ever did, provided Apple
keeps on guard against that rat.

At MacWorld 1997, Steve said Apple?s two core assets are the
Apple brand and Mac OS. He described Mac OS as ?yet to be fully
exploited? and that ?at the core, Apple is about the Mac OS.? The
Mac OS has moved on to become Mac OS X, but I don?t doubt
that that still holds true.

Ten years on, it looks like we are finally seeing the realization of
Steve?s desire to fully exploit the Mac OS.