Networks unfortunately are very complex, and in the early days it was necessary to license out the spectrum to enable competition. Without that we’d probably have monopolies.

Ultimately with many carriers we are still playing the same cards that we did with AOL, Compuserve etc. Back then our ISPs believed that they could serve us content better than the Internet itself. Compuserve used to have a button “Go on Internet” and that was while you were online!

Those days are long past us, and now companies like Google (Android) are trying to move us along to a new model where we take ownership of our devices and become carrier agnostic.

Will it work? Maybe, but just watch as OEMs fragment the Android platform, it’ll be called “differentiation” but we know that means “incompatible”.

In the future we’ll see carriers realise that they aren’t music and games publishers. They’ll hopefully concentrate on building advanced networks and help people communicate, rather than sell them crazy frogs.

Mark

I agree that the mobile world needs more openness and “walled garden” approaches stifle innovation.

However, I think your analogies with the auto industry and wireless spectrum are somewhat misleading.

Food for thought:
Who builds the roads on which you drive your car ? The state. If it were private companies, then we may end up having to pay a toll at every street corner …

Why do governments license wireless spectrum ? Because of Physics. If a minimal level of interference couldn’t be guaranteed in a given spectrum band, then all the nice cellular comms technologies we have today would fail to work…

So what do we make of that ?
I dunno, but I think that at times there is a greater benefit to the whole community in having a “benevolent dictator”, rather than leaving it up for individuals and corporations to figure it out in a seemingly “free” way.
It is then up to the “benevolent dictator” to get up and running the basic infrastructure on which innovation can strive, and keep it accessible on a fair basis.
(Note that the term “benevolent dictator” is not mine, but was employed in another blog to refer to Google’s role in the Android ecosystem).

Who would you prefer to have in this role for mobile applications development ?
Apple, Google, Adobe, Microsoft, your local cellco, the phone manufacturer ?

The good news for us is that is that at least there is choice.