iPhone and Android Build Momentum for Major Change in Wireless Industry

(Business News & Technology News, 16 Jul 2008)

Recent efforts by Apple (the iPhone) and Google (Android) to reshape the wireless industry have created a groundswell of support that will ultimately help mobile operators and handset vendors. According to market research firm In-Stat, the current telco-centered approach to developing Internet mobile applications has created an ecosystem for application developers that is complex, fragmented, difficult to enter, and offers a high risk of failure.

"The mobile operator-centric WAP-based ecosystem for applications has been challenged, unsuccessfully before," says Bill Hughes, In-Stat analyst. "It has taken the innovative design of Apple Computers and the financial power of Google to push the juggernaut off its course and more into harmony with the wishes of mobile customers."

Recent research by In-Stat found the following:
- Apple's iPhone had ambitions to change the wireless industry. Now it looks like it will mostly sell a large number of very exciting phones.
- Google's Android Project will kick-start location-aware advertising by enabling the benefits of mobile Linux—if it can create a good revenue sharing model for its wireless operator partners.
- Google will hedge its Android bet by working with others for location-aware searches, including Apple's iPhone.

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