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Led by Nokia, 14 of the world's most notable wireless companies have teamed up to develop an open architecture for wireless products and services
The new agreement was announced earlier in the week in Las Vegas at the Comdex trade show. The companies involved, a veritable who's who of the mobile world, include AT&T Wireless, mmO2, NTT DoCoMo, Vodafone, Fujitsu, Motorola, Nokia, Siemens, Sony Ericsson and Symbian, among others.
Microsoft -- which has traditionally resisted open standards but is trying to establish itself as a wireless leader, and in many respects already is one -- was notably absent from the consortium.
The purpose of the agreement is to create a global and open mobile software and services market, the companies said. This will be seen as important because it marks a milestone in the industry's movement toward interoperable devices and services for mobile Internet access and the downloading of video content. The new open standards initiative is based on GSM, GPRS and 3G technologies.
"By following consistent global and open standards, these industry leaders will be able to provide consumers with a wide selection of different competitive, yet interoperable terminals and services, and hence promote significant industry growth, and also aim to ensure that economies of scale are enjoyed throughout the industry," said the consortium in a statement.
To be included in the arrangement are other industry organisations such as 3GPP and the WAP Forum. The deal is important for more than just interoperability reasons. It is also expected to offer mobile operators, systems integrators, IT suppliers, terminal manufacturers and application developers new avenues of growth. It is thought that an open standard environment in the wireless world, like in the computer world, will make the development of new technologies faster, easier and universal.
"This initiative is all about making sure that we stretch the market potential of future mobile services to the maximum," said Jorma Ollila, chairman and chief executive officer of Nokia. "By starting this initiative, the industry leaders are coming together to realize the growth opportunity of the decade."
The initiative comes as the industry is suffering from a fairly significant decline in sales. Additionally, setbacks and skyrocketing costs have seen 3G and GPRS roll-outs slow down, and now analysts are beginning to question when the promised revenues from these new services, or any kind of data services, will come. An open standards environment for all mobile technologies could prove to be the catalyst the industry needs to takeoff in the next decade.
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