Who will be the ultimate winner in smartphones, and how will they win? Who will ultimately control the user experience on phones - phone manufacturers or mobile operating system vendors? At last week's Open Mobile Summit in San Francisco, executives from phone manufacturers HTC, Samsung, and Motorola discussed these questions. The panel featured guests such as John Jackson, Vice President of Research at CCS Insight, Alain Mutricy, Senior Vice President of Motorola, Jason Mackenzie of HTC Americas, Omar Khan, Chief Strategy Officer of Samsung, and Mike Bell, Vice President of Intel's Ultimate Mobile Group, focusing on the intense battle between platforms, including not only mobile platforms but also the competition between phones and computers.
### Views on Android
The first question posed to the panelists was their take on Android's impact on the industry.
Mackenzie of HTC believed that Android had helped HTC transition from a hardware-focused company to one centered around software and user experience, citing examples like the appearance of HTC Sense and its accompanying services. He also praised Google for its rapid innovation with Android, calling it the fastest innovating platform in the industry. He suggested that Google should continue to keep Android open, continuously improving OS versions and Google services at a fast pace.
When asked if the rapid updates of Android might make it difficult for phone manufacturers to keep up, the panelists saw this speed as a positive. Mutricy of Motorola stated that the pace of innovation helped deliver an excellent experience to users and connected more people to the internet. Khan agreed with Mackenzie, saying this allowed companies to focus on crafting user experiences, sharing Samsung's process of building the Samsung Media Hub service on the Android platform. Mike Bell of Intel noted that Android enabled companies to create "desktop-like experiences," which was beneficial for Intel's business growth since these experiences required processing power.
### Platform Wars: Not a Zero-Sum Game
Jackson pointed out that when discussing platforms, we often fall into a zero-sum mindset, but it doesn't have to be one platform against another. He asked the panelists to share their views on the platform wars. Bell suggested that emerging web standards could allow the creation of "app store-like functionality" using web technologies. Mutricy agreed, envisioning a future dominated by mobile internet where everything would be related to the internet and HTML5.
### Future Business Models for Phone Manufacturers
The next topic of discussion was the future business models for phone manufacturers. Khan shared Samsung's development of the Galaxy S series and associated services on the Android platform, aiming to create affinity across platforms and throughout the upgrade cycle for Samsung phones.
Mackenzie of HTC stated that HTC was more interested in creating flexible, natural user experiences rather than services or additional revenue streams, making the user interface feel seamless. He said, "This is what has made us successful over the past few years and will continue to do so in the future."
For Motorola, Mutricy mentioned that the company aimed to elevate user experience to a new level. For example, Motorola was researching remote diagnostic capabilities for its phones, which could enhance brand recognition among users.
### Device Manufacturers' Views on Tablets
Regarding tablets, Bell of Intel believed that tablets still needed to find the right price point, ideally cheaper than netbooks. Mutricy thought that everything about tablets revolved around user interaction with the device, leading to various form factors and pricing strategies.
Khan, using Samsung's newly launched Galaxy Tab as an example, shared that the development focused heavily on touch functionality, similar to most newly released tablets. Samsung wanted to understand more about how users interacted with these devices and gather feedback accordingly.
Mackenzie expressed that HTC currently held a wait-and-see attitude towards tablets, wanting to assess the size of the consumer market in this area. Innovation around data plan pricing would be crucial, removing barriers to adopting these devices. Khan agreed, emphasizing that cross-platform data plans would be key.
### The Largest Mobile Platform in the Future
Looking ahead, Jackson asked the panelists who they thought would be the largest mobile platform by 2015, excluding Android. Bell believed it would still likely be Android and Apple, possibly alongside some platforms not yet conceived. Mutricy suggested that by 2015, HTML5 and the internet itself might be the largest platform, though no one today knows who the biggest platform manufacturer will be. Khan noted that from a developer's perspective, the current complexity of dealing with multiple platforms would drive people to find simpler ways to accomplish tasks, potentially leaning on the Web itself.
Mackenzie agreed with others, stating that Apple and Google couldn't be excluded, nor could Microsoft. "It may not be popular to say, but they are all in this to win, so I wouldn't exclude them," he remarked.
Source: ReadWriterMobile