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November 22, 2006
Open Source In Mobile - What You Need To Know
The a:c euro didn't make it to the Informa Open Source in Mobile conference in Amsterdam in early November but Andreas Constantinou of mobile industry consulting firm Vision Mobile did, so we asked him if he heard anything that might affect a:c euro's readers.
He put together a short report in reply that highlights recent open source developments and a quick analysis. Constantinou concludes there is a huge opportunity but one that comes with double-edged risk.
Read on below the jump.
Open Source in Mobile gathered over 100 industry attendees. Presentations were given by the who's who of execs active in open source for mobile phones: Panasonic's Yukio Yagi (General Manager), Vodafone's Phil Carter (Head of Terminal Platforms), Motorola's Christy Wyatt (Head of Ecosystem Dev), A la Mobile's Pauline Alker (CEO), Trolltech's Adam Lawson (PM, Qtopia), Nokia's Ari Jaaksi (Head of Open Source Software Operations), OSDL's Bill Weinberg, ARM's Philippe Robin (PM Linux) and Black Duck's Doug Levin.
The event's mystery speaker was Sean Moss-Pulz, the visionary father of FIC's OpenMoko, who chose to break the news on the open-source platform at the event.
Open source has the potential to disrupt conventional ways of doing business in mobile, by engaging external communities to reduce total cost of platform ownership, reduce time to market, and speed up innovation in creating new mobile phones, which is why is it currently a hot space for VC activity.
However, as any open source veteran will point out, using open source
- is not free,
- does not guarantee hordes of external developers contributing code to your product
- most often needs seed funding (most successful O/S projects have commercial backers)
- requires extra care in defining the business plan, and working your way around licensing issues.
The flurry of activity in open source is evident in the many recent announcements in the area:
- Nokia's Maemo project is continuing to grow and Ari Jaaksi announced the Sardine device which would follow the 770 Internet tablet, both based on Maemo.
- In July Motorola pledged that more than half of the manufacturer's mobile phones will use Linux within 18 to 24 months. (Image above is the Motorola Linux Model e680 and here a screenshot).
- Motorola has further open sourced their implementation of MIDP3, i.e. next-gen Java for phones. At the open source conference, Christy Wyatt also said that sales of Motorola's Ming have reached 1% of total phone sales in China, an impressive feat.
- Last week Sun announced details of how it is going to open source J2ME and J2SE implementations, marking a major twist in Sun's Java saga.
- Earlier in November Adobe announced it has open sourced ActionScript 3, a core part of Flash, which is now hosted by Mozilla and will find its place into future Firefox browsers.
- Handset manufacturer FIC announced OpenMoko, the first fully open source Linux phone software platform, that competes with Purple Labs (owned by ODM Vitelcom), MontaVista's MobiLinux, WindRiver, Trolltech's Qtopia and Applix's BTO service.
- In late October Access Linux Platform announced it is open sourcing its application framework, a critical part of the phone software stack.
- Linux tools vendor Open Plug announced it had secured a $15m Round B funding in early October
- A la Mobile was started in June by entrepreneur-in-residence Pauline Alker with $3.5m seed funding and is believed to be looking to secure another $10m to fulfil its promise of 'the Red Hat of mobile'.
- In October, private equity firm Garnett & Helfrich Capital announced it had acquired a controlling stake in a privately held U.S. company Celunite , reportedly for $30 million. Celunite is a Sunnyvale, California-based provider of Linux-based open-source technology, which is still in stealth mode.
In this flurry of open source activity around mobile handsets, what are the opportunities for VCs?
Open source has the potential to be as disruptive for mobile handset software, as Google has been is for mobile operator 'closed garden' strategies. In other words, if you bank on the right player, the potential for returns are huge, as Linux and open-source software are garnering industry backing and market share.
However, the potential for failure in open source projects should not be understated. A la Mobile and Open Plug for example are very ambitious and high risk propositions. Investors and VCs looking at open source need to have both a very good understanding of handset technologies and the risks associated with open source licensing.
Read - VisionMobile (Andreas Constantinou blog)
Posted on November 22, 2006 10:46 AM | Posted to Open Source Software | Wireless | Permalink
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