Walled Gardens At DemoMobile

As I fly back home from DemoMobile, I am struck by the fact that "innovation" in the mobile market is apparently stuck in the same quagmire we faced at the outset of the Web. All mobile computing paths appear to be leading to the walled garden. And no matter how pretty that walled garden may appear at first blush, mark my words, it is going to feel pretty claustrophobic in no time at all.

Chris Shipley, the Executive Producer of DemoMobile, started out the conference with a mea culpa. Last year at DemoMobile, Chris welcomed the dawn of the age of "Device Computing." She contended at the time that computing was moving to the edge of the network where it would hereafter be resident in smart devices. It was a reasonable conclusion to come to. Devices like the Treo 600 were emerging and starting to crack the code on mobile computing.

That said, Chris has changed her mind. On closer inspection, she has determined that we are, in fact, in the age of "Service-Based Computing." In Service Based Computing, devices are not the brains of the operation. They are just pretty little end nodes on a smart data network. The real horsepower is going to be delivered in the network through managed services. And that's not just for consumer services. ASPs like Salesforce and QuickBooks Online, for example, demonstrate that, as Chris put it, "the future model for nearly all computing" is service based. I could not agree with her more. Fat pipes and elegant devices make it possible to deliver immense services to the edge of the network but the real work is going to get done in the network, not the device. The result, Chris concluded, is that devices and the services that work on them are going to have to "simply work and work simply." Ah-men to that.

The problem is that while a number of Chris's demonstrators got the memo on "simply working and working simply," they missed the memo that said "the walled garden is a prison." Take, for example, Pepper Computer. The Pepper Pad is a purpose built tablet PC of sorts, designed to be carried around the wireless home for access to the Web, IM, email, music, videos, etc. And it is unquestionably an example of a device delivering the intelligence of the network. The only problem is that the horsepower in the network is a one trick pony. You get the limited functionality it comes with and no more. Same is true of the Wireless Media Gateway being launched by ViewSonic (the monitor people). ViewSonic's gateway is a 120 Gig Network Attached Storage device with built in Wifi. You migrate media content onto the gateway device via your PC and then that content is distributed around the home using WiFi to Wireless Media Adapters hooked up to your TV, stereo, monitor. But while the interface is simple, it is also simple minded. You only get to view or listen to specified categories of content in predetermined ways. Similarly, Handmark, Inc. (the PDA game people) launched a set of wireless services delivered to certain memory-rich cell phones. While the set of services they have chosen may be useful (e.g., simple white and yellow pages), you get only the services they chose to deliver. And the examples went on throughout the conference.

No matter how elegant the interface, no matter how simple the service, I believe purpose built hardware and services (like those demoed this week) will fail. The thing that is exciting to me about the increasing power of wireless devices and the increasingly thick wireless pipe is that these devices will become full-featured, general-purpose computers. While I agree with Chris that the future is in the services delivered over the network, that future will be about any device accessing any service, not about specific devices accessing specific services. Perhaps this is just an evolutionary step toward that promised land, but let me know when the walls come down. That's when you'll find me playing in the wireless garden.

Comments

[C. Enrique Ortiz]

I totally agree with this... Yes, services is what will bring value add to mobile/wireless... what will make handsets not be just a standalone device, but a true information/collaboration device. About walled gardens, I also agree with David. I remember Netpliance, a home internet appliance that provided access to email, etc. thru their 'walled garden'. Netpliance, an innovator, died (today they are Tippingpoint). The walled garden approach will be (is being) used by carriers, as it is their way to provide THEIR services (in addition to the pipeline); that will continue. But because there always be a useful service "out there" outside the walled-garden, it is important that a way a out to walled garden is provided by the carrier; and carriers do have one, but there are still limitations (many hidding or hard to get information on how to do things)...

ceo

[Douglass Turner]

I assume the walled gardens you are most concerned with at those constructed by mobile operators. If that is the case then I think you are severely deluded. In 2004 over 600,000,000 million handsets will be sold into these operator's walled gardens bringing the total to around 1,500,000,000 paying customers.

The States have a collective reality distortion field when it comes to the mobile wireless space where highly intelligent people actually believe Wi-Fi will sweep this world away.

Could someone please clarify how we bill in this Wi-Fi powered land of OZ?

Cheers,

Douglass Turner

voice/sms: +354 895 5077

[David Hornik]

Actually, I wasn't talking about mobile operators per se. It will be nifty when we have multi-mode wireless devices and can roam onto the fattest pipe available. But my issue was with the intermediate devices and services like those I described. They limit the range of experiences you can have over the network or on a particular device. True, mobile operators limit the handsets available on their particular networks and often limit the data and services they make available directly. But the good news is that the current generation of devices and networks are by and large making the open internet available in your pocket. That's precisely what they should be doing and that was my point.

[Douglass Turner]

Nifty. Ummm Nifty? Exactly how old are you? Chill, I'm just messin' with you.

Look, if a mobile operator decides that a mult-radio handset is what they want they will tell the ODMs to go make one. But if they think it will hurt them they will tell the ODMs to leave it out. F*ck what Nokia has got cooking in the labs. F*ck Nokia's clamims about being the #8 global brand. Nokia is in deep denial. I think it's a Finnish thing.

If an operator feels that Web-browsing on a handset is a good thing they will allow it. They will make it awkward, and unpleasant, but sure, as long as it doesn't bring the network crashing down, and as long as it doesn't interfere with their voice business, cool.

Damn right Vodafone and Orange and Verizon limit your range of experience. That's the whole point. Welcome to branding mobile operator style!

On planet earth people die, people pay taxes, someone WILL be fired at the end of each episode of The Apprentice, and mobile operators will preserve their vice-like grip on your world.

Can ya hear me now?

Cheers,

Douglass Turner

voice/sms: +354 895 5077

[Graham Saywell]

We are launching a way for users to go directly to whatever they want where ever they are on a internet enabled mobile phone...most handsets already have an 'Enter URL' or "Go to Address' function for directly entering internet url's as part of a handsets menu structure...but as we all know entering long winded mobile internet url's using a 0-9 alphanumeric keypad is a nightmare!

To go to anything all you need to do is enter whatever you are looking for in numbers rather than using letters, add .com and you will go to a topic specific portal on that subject/topic.

e.g. News = 6397.com, etc.

We are currently testing in New Zealand but will be rolling the WordDial service out globally over the coming 24 months...

Meanwhile other than location specific services most generic portals such as Free (3733.com), Games (42637.com), Ringtones (746486637.com), Weather (9328437.com) etc give a great experience today..

and soon you too will be able to go direct to the local Plumber, order a Pizza or a Taxi or what ever on the mobile internet outside the Walled Garden and operators control!

Regards,

Graham Saywell.

Founder.

WordDial.com Ltd

[Anita Miller]

Yes, but if any device can access any service, without walled gardens, then the service and the devices can be ubiquitious in more ways that just the use of the service. Users will share what they know and like directly, and they won't need to hear about something they and their friends want or will use all the time from the press, or a big expensive conference like DEMOmobile that is centered around the idea of messages and advertising, and getting reporters into a room to see products that really need to be used to understand what it's really about. That conference is all about old media and old systems of PR and marketing.

The new devices, services and social interaction that really work for people will come in open networks, and through open word of mouth, online, in blogs, text messaging, sms, and because people show other people how they can connect with each other in cool ways. The places you'll find these are networks of people who use these tools shared by word of mouth, not due to an analyst charging big sums to makers of products structured defensively to keep users in and others out, to get the press to write articles about those services.

[John Ko]

David,

Your observation reminds of the difference between an incremental advance vs. a break-through in technology, where incrementals demonstrate signs of what is about to occur, and a break-through show an occurrence.

Of course, history is full of events that have been missed because true innovations are by definition hard to recognize. For example, Netscape completely missed the Web app server market.

As far as reading and extending on what you've accurately observed on the wireless arena, I think the 2 key items needed to make the Web open to wireless devices are:

1) VGA+ displays (organic paper screen) will solve many Web presentation problems that can't be solved easily;

2) and Web services that are virtually 100% dynamic. Content will always outpace bandwidth (just as problems will always overwhelm CPU power). So wireless Web services will need to able to deliver relevant materials from the open Web to a billion+ Web-enabled small devices. Think of Akamai for wireless small devices, where content isn't just regurgitated (CDN), but it's also processed and delivered optimized for device specific parameters and user preferences.

-John