Great article here:
http://www.telecomasia.net/article.php?id_article=319
Basically a nicely summed up bit of info supporting my (and just about the rest of the mobile community’s) opinion about the current trend of the role of the mobile operator/network.
We’re basically approaching the end of what I call the ‘AOL’ era for mobile networks. AOL tried to be everything and anything on the ‘Internet’, while blocking access outside their supported portal. This is the same approach mobile operators took and just as with AOL it isn’t working.
As technology and content improve the only thing that really drives use of services and content via mobile devices will be access to a ‘wide’ range of services, that a user ‘chooses’. The Internet never really took off as a commercial platform until this occurred, then forward thinking entrepreneurs came up with great ideas like e-bay, myspace, youtube, google etc. Unless today’s operator’s somehow have the amazing luck to employ all the future mobile youtube-type thinkers, then the choice of services on mobiles is going to continue to be humdrum. An open environment all leads to a richer pool of ideas that lead to better and better creative ventures.
The plus side of this for mobile operators is going to be improved bottom lines, they can make money by offering great connectivity services for their customers and ensuring that they can enjoy all the great stuff people want to offer on the mobile, just as isps make money by providing access to the internet without expecting a piece of every sale on e-bay. They have learned to love services like youtube, all those bits of video streaming down their pipes makes a lovely Kaching! sound.