This week will apparently see executives from Orange, T-Mobile, Telefonica and Vodafone meeting to discuss the incursion of Apple and Google into the mobile industry. When the news was first announced, the concept of a ‘war cabinet meeting’ in France seemed somewhat surprising: the idea of the operators waking up to the fact that Apple and Google are posing more and more of a threat, perhaps less so.

Most galling for the incumbents must be the fact that the new guys have steamed straight into the most lucrative parts of the mobile market, without having to go through the painful process of buying licences, building and operating networks, and supporting subscribers. Look where the big growth areas are and you will find Apple and Google – not always alone, but always present. The booming mobile app market is dominated by Apple, with Google a close second. In mobile advertising, both Apple and Google have made acquisitions to bolster their presence. Smartphones are the area of the handset sector driving growth; iOS and Android is where most of the momentum is coming from.

Perhaps the biggest issue for the operators, if they are intending to unite to tackle the dark forces, is that the new partnership will have to function with a new mindset, more like those of Apple, Google and their internet counterparts. It will need to act quickly and proactively to stay ahead of the innovation curve, rather than adopting the long cycles traditionally needed by operators to bring products to market. It will need to embrace innovation from outside where this contributes to the greater good. While the traditional operator mentality may be to see products and services as competitive differentiators which are best kept to themselves, the need to challenge Apple and Google may make other operators seem less like rivals and more like allies: the enemy of my enemy is my friend.

In the markets where Orange, T-Mobile, Telefonica and Vodafone are most active, the handset is perhaps the most logical place to start the fightback. Operators largely control the supply chain, and have the purchasing clout to heavily influence vendors’ product roadmaps. While the mobile internet business has changed to such an extent that a return to the days of the walled garden is inconceivable, the handset does provide a real way for operators to get new products and services into the hands of customers, with the potential to reduce the influence of the interlopers.

But as Vodafone discovered when it pushed a number of its Vodafone 360 apps to unwitting subscribers, this has to be handled sensitively. There is a fine line between using a device to introduce customers to new operator services and accusations of ‘bloatware.’ Any operator influence (or interference) has to be tempered by the need to embrace the openness of the internet, even if the intention is to lessen the influence of Apple and Google.

 

Could operators be the saviours of Symbian OS?

While it is probably far too early to consider the technology implications of such an alliance, if it actually takes place, there is one interesting – if unlikely – possibility to consider: operators could become the saviours of Symbian OS. According to the initial reports, the quartet is meeting to consider the potential of creating a unified device OS, and with some consideration it could well be noted that Symbian OS has much going for it – not least that unlike a custom Android implementation, it does not have any link with Google.

While Nokia’s smartphone platform of choice is currently seen as something of a spent force by certain parts of the industry, it is still the largest smartphone operating system by shipment volume, and as the recent Nokia World event showed, Nokia is putting a lot of effort into revitalising the platform and wooing developers. With the operators also on-board, this task would become much easier, and everybody involved able to benefit from the scale of a platform supported by the largest handset maker and the largest operators.

This is, perhaps, a somewhat unusual situation to end up in: it is not that long ago that it was Nokia that was seen as the threat by the operators, due to its efforts to increase its mobile content sales (ringing tones and wallpapers, for example) and ‘own’ the relationship with the customer, while Apple and Google were not even on the radar. With Nokia’s attempts to build a mobile services portfolio having delivered mixed results at best, the company may now be seen as the lesser of the evils when compared to Apple and Google.

Although Nokia is the main device vendor supporter of Symbian OS, with Samsung and Sony Ericsson having recently turned their backs on the platform, many of those who have departed the Symbian ecosystem for pastures greener could well be lured back into the fold should the OS become the platform of choice for operators. Samsung has said that it could make Symbian OS devices should its customers (the operators in this case) demand, and Sony Ericsson is a relatively recent departure; LG Electronics is not currently listed as a member of the Symbian Foundation, but is keen to build its smartphone market share and again may be an easy convert.

But it would not be the first time that the various parties have been here. In 2006, Vodafone and Nokia announced a partnership to promote Symbian OS and Nokia’s S60 software platform, which led to the release of a Vodafone-specific S60 implementation for handset makers; in 2004, Nokia and T-Mobile announced a partnership to develop branded applications for S60 smartphones; in 2006, Orange announced a version of S60 for its Signature devices; and there are other, similar examples.

To use the words of Karl Marx: “history repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce.”

 

Steve Costello

The editorial views expressed in this article are solely those of the author(s) and will not necessarily reflect the views of the GSMA, its Members or Associate Members