A lot has been written about this years CTIA, big news about new voice services, Skype on iPhone, Samsung presenting Android or not, bla bla bla. The most remarkable statement, however, was littled commented: Verizon committed to Mobile OSGi!
Talking about the carrier's challenge of supporting 8 or 9 different mobile operating systems, Verizon Wireless' CEO Lowell McAdam said that "I don't think I need to bet on an operating system, I need to bet on layers that will bridge those operating systems."
Isn't that exactly what OSGi delivers? A cross platform bridge for apps, services, APIs? A manageable middleware layer that reduces bad fragmentation while unleashing a particular platform's power? I'm absolutely sure McAdam alluded to Mobile OSGi, there's just no other way... ;-)
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Thursday, April 2, 2009
1,000 reasons to go for Mobile OSGi
Apple has recently announced the iPhone OS 3.0 Software. As for any of their public statements, once again Apple is extremely proud of its own achievements. The new OS version is said to come with 100 new features and an incredible set of 1,000 new APIs. Indeed, version 3.0 seems to mark a major milestone in the iPhone evolution and I am sure they really did a great job.
What’s the connect to OSGi, though? The iPhone 3G device was launched in June 2008. The new OS 3.0 is expected to be launched around mid 2009 - that's 1 year period at least. Apple claims that ...With the new SDK, members of the iPhone Developer Program can build applications that do even more... I'm sure they are not exaggerating on this. However, why would developers had to wait 1 full year (!) to get more APIs? Why to have them wait 12 long month to leverage more of the extremely capable and beautiful platform that they had right from the beginning? That's one year of delayed innovation, one year of untapped opportunities, one year of competitors to catch up, isn't it? You think a year is not that long? I claim it is! Recap what has happened meanwhile: Android phones entered the market, Palm Pre has been announced (and if speculations are right will also hit the US market before iPhone OS 3.0 is out), Nokia has launched its touch OS (S60 5.0), etc. etc.
Mobile OSGi is setting out to solve the *API innovation cycle problem*. In OSGi, new APIs can be loaded at any time, by anyone (who has the right permissions). Developers don't need to wait for X years for the manufacturer to complete the next static image version - they just pull the APIs they need and deploy them along with the apps. Internet firms can wrap their services into APIs and have them be used by 3rd party developers to create the next gen mobile apps for them. New business models (like the one Apple is to ship with 3.0: in-app sales) can emerge way quicker than before etc. etc. For sure, there's always more creative brain power outside the manufacturers engineering team, why not leverage that, why not to unfold the true creativity of the worlds developer community?
It’s sad enough that the phone hardware platform got to have a static lifecycle. But the APIs don’t need to be static, really!
What’s the connect to OSGi, though? The iPhone 3G device was launched in June 2008. The new OS 3.0 is expected to be launched around mid 2009 - that's 1 year period at least. Apple claims that ...With the new SDK, members of the iPhone Developer Program can build applications that do even more... I'm sure they are not exaggerating on this. However, why would developers had to wait 1 full year (!) to get more APIs? Why to have them wait 12 long month to leverage more of the extremely capable and beautiful platform that they had right from the beginning? That's one year of delayed innovation, one year of untapped opportunities, one year of competitors to catch up, isn't it? You think a year is not that long? I claim it is! Recap what has happened meanwhile: Android phones entered the market, Palm Pre has been announced (and if speculations are right will also hit the US market before iPhone OS 3.0 is out), Nokia has launched its touch OS (S60 5.0), etc. etc.
Mobile OSGi is setting out to solve the *API innovation cycle problem*. In OSGi, new APIs can be loaded at any time, by anyone (who has the right permissions). Developers don't need to wait for X years for the manufacturer to complete the next static image version - they just pull the APIs they need and deploy them along with the apps. Internet firms can wrap their services into APIs and have them be used by 3rd party developers to create the next gen mobile apps for them. New business models (like the one Apple is to ship with 3.0: in-app sales) can emerge way quicker than before etc. etc. For sure, there's always more creative brain power outside the manufacturers engineering team, why not leverage that, why not to unfold the true creativity of the worlds developer community?
It’s sad enough that the phone hardware platform got to have a static lifecycle. But the APIs don’t need to be static, really!
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