Who am I? Why am I here?

Caught up in what appears to be another Microsoft-Apple-Google battle was this release - the guys behind Linux, the free open-source operating system, have created one for mobile phones.

It could be the fourth-party candidate to fit the bill needed in this industry - some kind of standardization to create platforms ALL developers can use. (Forgive the political reference here and above to Ross Perot’s running mate Adm. James Stockdale). I don’t necessarily ascribe to the free model, but certainly open source makes a lot of sense.

It could certainly help wireless content/advertising creators as well - one of the big holdbacks in expansion in this frontier has been the dizzying array of operating systems and technologies that marketers have to navigate.

But at the same time, don’t expect Microsoft to go down without a fight, as evidenced here . Microsoft wants to make its Mobile operating system more consumer friendly to take on Apple’s iPhone - go figure.

I won’t hide my bias for Microsoft’s Windows Mobile - I grew up in the last decade using it’s PDA-based predecessor PocketPC, which was great for filing stories in the field if you had a portable keyboard. But Gates & Co. are losing sight of what makes that system so great - it is really catered to the guy who already uses Microsoft Office as a desktop application. In short, a businessman’s phone.

But as more people turn to Web-based word processing and spreadsheets, that all could change - we’ll have to see.

And then there is Google’s Android system, which has gotten a lot more hype and support from device manufacturers such as Samsung. This could help Google’s world domination drive even further - especially since AdSense (its automated sponsored links/online ad program) is reportedly built in.

Let’s just hope that it gets easier one day - but for now, it will be even messier. 

Nokia gets it - let US design it

This floated across my nose awhile back, and I apologize for just getting to it.

But it turns out that Nokia gets it. The guys from the REAL great white north are allowing user input into what goes into and onto phones, and how they should operate.

Here is a quote lifted from the Web site NewsFactor Network:

 “The ability to include large numbers of users into the development cycle means you can have a much more collaborative approach to development and you can try ideas out, refine them and move forward — or fail fast and get out,” said Bob Iannucci, Nokia’s chief technology officer. “We want more wild ideas.”

The story also recounts the Forrester study on the future of the wireless Web and how it will grow, and how Nokia’s initiative could help shape how we use it.

“Forrester Research expects the number of mobile Internet users to triple over the next five years in Western Europe alone, to 125 million, while Nokia expects its double-digit margins on handsets to shrink.”

So they did the right thing (which is sooo rare nowadays) - they let US design it.

Can’t wait to see some of those ideas at work. My first suggestion - I would love to see what they could do with a Windows Mobile powered device. Try something other than Symbian as an OS, and see what else is out there.

What are your ideas? What would you like on a phone/mobile device?

Could the PC eventually disappear?

Saw a piece this morning about a group of women from West Va. who pooled their money and won a $247 million jackpot in Powerball lottery.

Seems like a lot of money - but that’s chicken feed compared with what mobile search is going to generate, according to this new report from Juniper Research.

That’s $4.8 billion with a “B” in the next five years. All from people looking up stuff on their handsets.

The article also goes into how that money is going to be generated, and of most interest are the gradual reduction in the “walled garden” (which will be a combination of easier-to-use devices and the service providers losing control of what people want to do with their phones, novel concept I know). Also of note - the cost of data will be coming down or offered at a flat rate.

Not that phones are ever going to replace PCs, but as search is taking over as a major function of any computer, are we going to see a tipping point of PCs to phones over the next five years? Are people going to be willing to shell out $400-500 for a decent smartphone that can search, see flash pages, browse the Net, type e-mails or text msgs, and talk with their friends - and forego $1,000 for a laptop and another $25-30 a month for high-speed connections. Not to mention the added coming bonus of having that search linked to your location by your phone.

As I stated in a previous post (actually my first ever post), there is already anecdotal proof that this has happened in Asia, and especially Japan.

 Oh, and it doesn’t hurt that Google and Yahoo! are girding their loins to take on mobile. Just wait until Android (Google’s new mobile operating system) and its accompanying tie-in to AdSense really starts taking hold. 

 Addendum (added later in the day): Google is noticing the uptick as well.

“We have very much hit a watershed moment in terms of mobile Internet usage,” Matt Waddell, a product manager for Google Mobile, said in an interview with Reuters (run on the CNET Web site). “We are seeing that mobile Internet use is in fact accelerating.”

The networks may need to get faster to catch that Vette …

With a $2 billion ad budget, General Motors is finally pushing some of that to interactive, according to this piece in Advertising Age.

And guess what? Some of that could be going to mobile advertising, the company says in the story. Great timing, considering that mobile Web surfing more than doubled n 2007. Still, only 1 percent of cell phone users say they use their devices to access the Web, according to the ComScore report.

But NBCU (the interactive branch of NBC TV networks) also is getting into the act, launching a car shopping network. And I know that NBCU is trying hard to get into mobile as well, having posted a position or two for the same effort.

But this also comes at a time when a lot of phones will start being able to handle Flash (the program that handles a lot of animation on the Web) as well as PDF (those pesky files that can load off Adobe Acrobat) - including Nokia, as well as Motorola and LG phones.

The trick is going to be making relevant and funny/poignant content tied to the auto industry’s product, or coming up with a cool way to get people to look at the message. A banner ad on a WAP deck ain’t going to cut it with car buyers.

A complicating issue with that, however, could be that the state of the American wireless networks as a whole aren’t quite ready for prime time. Some could handle the bandwidth of such applications, but for most, we’re at least 2-3 years away. But as alluded to in the Reuters link above to the Boston Globe about wireless Web usage, there’s only upside from here.

And it only makes sense that it would evolve this way. The auto industry spends more on ad dollars than any other in the U.S., but is closely followed by beer and - you guessed it - telecom (notably by wireless companies).

There is a bright side to all you ad haters out there - it could come to pass that the two industries (cars and cell phones) combine to make just one ad, cutting down on the noise and letting me get back to what’s up with Sayed on the boat in Lost.

But then again, that’s wishful thinking.