Tricia Duryee
mocoNews.net
Friday, May 30, 2008
9:00 AM
Qualcomm ( NSDQ: QCOM) unveiled its mobile internet strategy today at its own Brew conference in San Diego, showing that competition is heating up as internet giants Google ( NSDQ: GOOG), Yahoo! ( NSDQ: YHOO) and Microsoft ( NSDQ: MSFT) move into mobile. Called Plaza, the platform appears to be the next generation of Qualcomm's Brew technology, which has prospered in a walled garden, but may suffer as phones get smarter and more open operating systems have access to the open Internet. Brew has a lot to build from, having established a big business that generated 80 million transactions a month last year and has the support of Verizon Wireless ( NYSE: VZ), Alltel ( NYSE: AT) and other CDMA carriers. Release.
Qualcomm said Plaza will let developers create widgets that operators provide to their subscribers for access to the mobile Internet, which although might be good for operators, developers and publishers, sounds a lot like it is trying to maintain status quo in the industry by building a new wall for a different garden. In Qualcomm's own words: Plaza will give "publishers, developers and operators the ability to open up the mobile Internet to subscribers and monetize it for operators and content providers alike." said Andrew Gilbert, Qualcomm's EVP and President of Internet services, MediaFLO and European operations. "Plaza is designed such that mobile widgets can come from a number of sources, including operators, Web companies and leading brands, who all share the ultimate goal of driving subscriber adoption of the mobile Internet. We believe that providing end users with an easy way to extend their online lives to their mobile devices will help drive the uptake of data services."
At the same time, Qualcomm does appear to be acknowledging the appeal of the open Internet. In the release, it uses words such as "open standards for widget development," and says widget-making will be open to the existing Web community, traditional mobile app developers and even user-generated content. Qualcomm said it is actively working with operators to define Plaza prior to commercialization, so it will be interesting to how it shakes out. Qualcomm's smart to try and come up with an internet approach, but it will be interesting to see if the next wave in mobile is enabled by traditional mobile businesses, or by outsiders coming from the internet world.
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