Blurring Boundaries in the mobile world

Thomas Husson | November 06, 2007, 05:45 AM

As often stated in this blog, it is simply amazing to see how boundaries are being blurred in the mobile value chain.

APPLE managed to obtain a voice & data revenue share from operators for its first ever mobile phone. NOKIA likes to define itself as an “Internet Company” and just launched its UK music store (see Mark Mulligan’s comment here). The French shop is supposed to open in Q2 2008, the time to have the right catalogue. Music being local, it will take time before each country has its own music store and it will require even more time before content and services (music but also games and maps) are seamlessly integrated with devices on online stores under the OVI umbrella brand.

Last but not least, GOOGLE announced yesterday its OPEN OS platform based on Linux. Not the first one but the largest one and potentially the most disruptive given the names of the partners.
More info on this from Michael Gartenberg, Ian Fogg and David Schatsky.

Not much to add here. According to some financial analysts quoting Google, the free open OS will help operators to reduce handset subsidies by 10%. I think it will take some time before volumes are there and consequently costs are down. However, given the impressive line-up of operators (except Orange and Vodafone), chipset manufacturers and handset manufacturers (top 3 Nokia challengers except Sony Ericsson), this is a long-term threat to Nokia / Symbian (70% market share of operating systems here) and Microsoft / Windows Mobile.

Those are obviously the very early days and many new steps will follow in the coming months and years. It just a very good time to be an independent observer and to watch how new entrants are reshaping business models and incumbents' roles.