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OPEN SOURCE - Defragmenting the mobile Internet
The move to open source in content delivery could be the much-needed catalyst to
driving the mobile web forward says Mark Watson
The analyst community has often painted a rosy picture of the mobile Internet industry. Take, for example, Forrester's recent prediction that 38 per cent of European users will access the mobile Internet by 2013, with the number of 3.5G devices overtaking GSM/GPRS devices in the market by that date. Meanwhile, other analyst forecasts for global market size for mobile content range from a conservative £3bn to an ambitious £10bn over the next three years. Yet, while forecasts are routinely upbeat about the potential for the industry, to many involved in the mobile content market, it has become evident that the forecasts are taking much longer than expected to come to fruition; the abundance of compelling content and web applications that exists on the traditional Internet has not yet arrived on the mobile web.
To many it is market fragmentation that has stalled the development - and ultimately consumer uptake - of mobile content. Faster mobile networks, rich browsers, and compelling devices are now all established features of mobile Internet services. In fact it is the diversity of choice and capability in handsets in particular that has created a frustrating degree of fragmentation in the market. Fixed line Internet developers, for example, are tasked with building compelling applications, making them available on the web, and can be confident that they will be accessible - language issues apart - for pretty much any PC user who can reach them. Developers for the mobile web have to build and test an application separately on most of the devices that Vodafone, Orange, T-Mobile and any other operator supports, globally. They have had to change it or extend it every time a new phone is released, and must plan for upcoming new handsets.
Fragmentation has created the very real need for the many mobile content delivery and transcoding services that are available in the market. This technology enables operators and content owners to increasingly move to a ‘write once, view anywhere' content strategy that reduces the complexity of managing mobile content. Server based solutions that automatically convert PC websites in real time to work on thousands of wireless devices without the need for high-end hardware or specialised software, instantly make a vast number of PC websites available to most mobile phone users across the globe. Transcoders are part of a stop-gap solution. They can intelligently filter, condition, analyse and distil PC website content before optimising and delivering web pages that are formatted in real-time, both visually and technically, for individual devices. Pages can have custom headers, footers and messages inserted within the conversion process to maintain full control over branding and service presentation.
Indeed, usability and presentation of content will prove to be a key component of future mobile Internet success. Take for example the much-hyped launch of the iPhone. It is a device that has undoubtedly had an impact in respect of mobile Internet usage. Despite running over an older connectivity technology in EDGE, mobile content usage amongst iPhone users is amongst the highest of any device according to analyst firm StatCounter; with many pundits suggesting that these usage figures are such because the device is built around intuitive use of the mobile Internet. New devices such as the recently launched HTC Touch Diamond and this summer's much anticipated Nokia N96 have also taken up the mantle; easy-to-use interfaces that promote the use of mobile content and applications.
If a fundamental issue is presentation of content, then a major causal factor in the slow uptake of the mobile web could be that the software, which can provide a universally improved user experience, is being withheld from the very people who should be building the new mobile web because of entrenched proprietary software licensing models
The success of the traditional Internet can largely be attributed to its openness - browsers are relatively standardised and the tools to create databases and complex systems, such as Linux and SQL, are widely and freely available as Open Source Software (OSS) through General Public Licenses (GPL). This environment has made it easy to develop for the web and has enabled the community to focus on what they do best - create fresh and compelling content, rather than worry about how to deliver it. With the mobile Internet, however, the story couldn't be more different - the market has always been highly fragmented, with an overwhelming array of devices with diverse characteristics, operating systems and networks jostling for position. And as smart phones get smarter and newer platforms - Google's Android and Apple's iPhone, most recently - continue to enter the market, the gulf between high-end devices and low-cost, mass-market handsets is only set to widen.
In this environment, it's not possible for content providers to just put a mobile web application "out there" and see the immediate uptake that they'd expect on the wider Internet. Instead, they need access to the right enabling technology to reach the mass market -software that can overcome fragmentation issues, as well as scale to support applications as they become increasingly successful across multiple markets in the longer term.
To date, the expensive licenses surrounding such software have meant that this all-important access has been limited or even non-existent for many, smaller developers and content providers. And, without ubiquitous access, the growth of the mobile Internet industry as a whole has been held back.
In the traditional Internet environment this access has been provided through OSS models, so couldn't the same principle be applied to mobile? OSS has the ability to provide an underlying platform for the management and delivery of mobile content and applications, and offer a common and scalable basis upon which individual content owners can develop differentiated and compelling products.
To this end, Volantis Systems has set its software free too with the Mobility Server open to developers to download, and use, for free, and 1.2 million lines of code available to extend and improve as the community sees fit. It is a move that will bring openness to the mobile web and will help to overcome the difficulties of divergence between networks, handsets, and browsers. In all, the result of seven years' of development has been opened up to the industry, along with access to a device database containing 653 attributes for more than 5,100 devices. That's got to be good news for content owners, who need easy-to-use tools in order to help their creativity come alive.
It is undoubtedly true that both the developer and operator communities are supportive of an industry wide move to open source. It will encourage developers to start extending the capabilities of the software currently out there and make available some new and compelling mobile content. Moreover, OSS mobility software, with licensing terms favourable to the enterprise audience, will open up mobile Internet development to a vast array of new companies. It is that content - the long tail - that will enable the mobile web to start to fulfil its potential and at least some of the analyst predictions made about it.
Operators too have expressed support for the community standards process, which has been driven by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), to create the Device Independent Authoring Language (DIAL) specification. Web development mark-up languages that comply with the DIAL specification, such as XDIME, can be used interchangeably to create content viewable on any mobile device.
It is a truism that the more open source applications we see on mobile devices, the more likely the industry is freed from restrictive licensing costs. In recent times the industry has seen the development of numerous handsets based on the LiMo platform and Google's Android platform has already helped to build an ecosystem of mobile developers. It's proof that the openness of the traditional Internet is slowly coming to the mobile ecosystem too. Indeed, the mobile web should become the platform upon which mobile data revenues are based, with open source helping to overcome the limitations imposed on content creation by license-fees.
What of those analyst predictions mentioned earlier? Sizing a market as dynamic and rapidly changing as the mobile Internet is not without its difficulties; hence the vast array of differing opinions. What we can be certain of is that better handsets, faster networks, and intuitive mobile web based phones will certainly help to drive uptake of mobile content. But as an industry we are now helping ourselves. The move to open source in content delivery and transcoding could be the catalyst that drives the mobile web forward. OSS will redefine the extent to which content publishers will be able to utilise and capitalise on the mobile web's opportunity and enable the emergence of the long tail of content.
Mark Watson is CEO and co-founder of Volantis Systems
www.volantis.com
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