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Mobile Open Source: A Torrent of Implication

Mobile Open Source: A Torrent of ImplicationAuthor: Eric Everson, Founder MyMobiSafe.comThere is a change working its way through the wireless industry that is fraught with the dynamics of a digital revolution.
Written by MobileTech , Contributor

Mobile Open Source: A Torrent of Implication Author: Eric Everson, Founder MyMobiSafe.com

There is a change working its way through the wireless industry that is fraught with the dynamics of a digital revolution. The buzz word “Open Source” has been a skirting temptation of the wireless industry for years, but only now are words becoming actions.

I credit our beloved friends over at Google for throwing the gasoline into the fire with their open source Android Operating System. Since that pivotal moment many Operating System (OS) providers have pledged an allegiance to the open source movement. Most recently Nokia has announced that the Symbian OS is destined to an open source fate.

Historically a significant degree of industrial isolation has created islands of innovation throughout the wireless industry. Since the beginning, cell phone manufactures have opted to employ their proprietary Mobile Operating Systems (pMOPS) creating little latitude for third party developers. Additionally this past trend has created gaping holes of incompatibility between handsets. The industry’s move towards open source is however breaking down such barriers of isolation creating the conditions for a surge of development.

Potentially in no other area than the development of a Universal Mobile Torrent (UMT) does this carry a greater short term impact. The phrase UMT still implies a fabled vision of a torrent application capable of connecting all cell phones. Nonetheless, the move towards open source bodes well for UMT architectures as developers will no longer be limited by the traditional confines of pMOPS. Additionally, an industry wide leap towards open source carries the potential of mitigating the ongoing research of deploying agent-oriented designs into torrent platforms to bypass constraints created by existing pMOPS.

UMT’s are but one aspect of development (the one which I feel offers the most significant impact in mobile security at the handset level) while many angles of third party development will also open like flood gates. A paradigm shift of open source MOPS threatens the pMOP tradition of extensive licensing fees against developer while it stands to create a free market seasoned for innovation. A move to open source within the wireless industry could take us from a plane of limited content to a terrain full of fresh developments. In the end the move towards mobile open source offers a torrent of implication.

Cheers, MobileTech

Eric Everson, Founder MyMobiSafe.com

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