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Originally published on 04/22/2002
I recently got a briefing on BREW (binary runtime environment for wireless), Qualcomm's platform for mobile applications. BREW's not exactly new; back in February, Verizon announced it was supporting BREW, and made compatibility with it a requirement for mobile phone manufacturers that want to sell their hardware through Verizon.
Fast Facts:
Qualcomm
www.qualcomm.com
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| CEO |
Irwin M. Jacobs
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| HQ |
San Diego, CA |
| Employees |
6,500 |
| Market |
Wireless technology |
| Funding |
Public. Nasdaq: QCOM |
Do we need yet another U.S. wireless technology? Currently, Sprint and Nextel are backing the J2ME (Java 2, Micro Edition) platform, while AT&T is pushing mMode (based on iMode, the NTT DoCoMo wireless browsing service). All of these environments, running on the United States' overlapping patchwork of cellular radio networks, should be available in phones this year.
As a friend says, "This is exactly not like the Internet." By design, services for one system won't work on another. The cellular companies and platform manufacturers want to hold customers by offering exclusive applications.
Yet if killer apps for mobile data do emerge, they are likely to be communications-based, and will grow more valuable as they attract more users. The suppliers of these applications will end up with enough muscle to compel carriers to run them (AIM, for example, is available on a wide range of systems). So the carriers are making life difficult for service and application developers while not, in the end, creating walled gardens effective enough to lock in customers.
There are more cracks in the walls: earlier this year, some of the networks have finally installed gateways that allow SMS (short message service) messages to be sent from one network to another.
While it's painful to be in the middle of this mess, ultimately all this competition over standards and platforms should yield better technology. Let's hope that the wireless companies achieve the wisdom to use it.
- Rafe Needleman
email: rafe-needleman@catchoday.com
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