We’ve been saying for some time at MobHappy that the future of mobile is as a thin client, with much of the processing, storage and grunt work being undertaken by the network’s servers. This is to do with speed and power use mainly, as storage gets ever smaller and cheaper.
So when this line of thinking is confirmed by Bob Iannucci, head of Nokia’s Research Centre in an interview with VNU, it confirms that we’re on the right lines.
At the same time, they promise more open platforms that we can configure to how we want, with the handset becoming more of a gateway to third party services.
Naturally, the operators might have a different vision about this direction. Much as the handset makers and mobile users want “open”, operators tend to want “closed”, despite the historical evidence that closed systems tend to crumble and die.
I wonder how will this work with services that relate to handset functionalities? as much as operators want to get more services in network, the HS manufacturers want to create their own user communities and thus develop HS’s with extended capabilities and features. In the process of creating a consumer offering, the HS vendors are also looking for HS based applications. this path is actually contradicting to what’s said in the post. especially coming from Nokia, who are really pushing their direct to consumer services.