re: Nokia & Openwave Kiss & Make up (OMAI)
<< This proliferation of Forums, Initiatives, Group and such only spells bad omen for the industry >>
Too bloody many but ...
Everything's as cool as it is gonna get between Nokia & Openwave.
I'm glad to see Openwave as an OMA participant.
Reverse chrono on these stories, below:
>> Openwave Announces Support Of Open Mobile Architecture (OMA)
Openwave PR
3GSM World Congress
Cannes, France
February 18, 2002
openwave.com
Openwave Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: OPWV), the worldwide leader of open, IP-based communication infrastructure software and applications today announced support for the Open Mobile Architecture (OMA) initiative. Openwave has already undertaken activities to drive immediate collaboration in key areas of standards development and interoperability with leading OMA supporters and will continue to align its product development strategy to be consistent with the mission of the initiative, which is to accelerate the advancement of consumer mobile services and their mainstream adoption.
The participants in the Open Mobile Architecture initiative have committed to developing products and services based on open mobile architecture enablers such as WAP2.0/XHTML, MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) and JavaTM technology. They will work closely with standards bodies such as the 3GPP, the WAP Forum and Java Community Process (JCP). The participants will also identify new technologies that are needed to achieve openness and interoperability and map them to the appropriate standards and/or interoperability testing (IOT) body.
"Nokia strongly believes that innovative products, open standards and interoperability are fundamental to mainstream adoption of new services in the mobile world. Openwave has a track record of developing innovative technologies for enabling mobile services and we are pleased by their commitment to Open Mobile Architecture,” said Pertti Korhonen, Senior Vice President, Mobile Software, Nokia.
"Motorola and Openwave have long worked cooperatively to improve the usability and performance of advanced mobile data handsets and are pleased by Openwave’s support of the Open Mobile Architecture initiative. The successful adoption of innovative mobile services and solutions is dependent on cooperation between industry leaders focusing on interoperability to deliver great end user experiences,” said Leif Soderberg, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Strategy and Business Development for Motorola’s Personal Communications Sector.
"IBM is excited with the progress that has been made bringing the mobile industry's leading players together under the common goal of building mobile applications around a common platform and a common set of industry standards, " said Jon Prial, Vice President of Marketing of IBM's Pervasive Computing Division. "IBM has been working closely with Ericsson, Motorola, Nokia, Openwave and others to deliver the most flexible solutions to wireless carriers. Through the Open Mobile Architecture initiative, we can better help carriers maximize ROI on their 3G licenses."
“We look forward to working alongside Nokia, Motorola and the large number of companies who have endorsed the initiative to move quickly to enable our customers to offer the best possible experience for consumers,” stated Don Listwin, chairman and chief executive officer of Openwave. “Interoperability is the key to the success of the mobile services business and Openwave is currently running interoperability testing with a number of partners. The actions taken today by supporters of the OMA initiative will have immediate impact to catalyze the next growth phase of our industry,” he said.
"Over the past few years, Genie, the mobile Internet business of mm02, has worked closely with Openwave in the deployment of market-making mobile data services across its properties. As mm02 works with a variety of partners and vendors, we are especially supportive of initiatives that encourage industry cooperation and that target the common advancement of mobile services. Progress in solving fundamental compatibility issues helps to pave the way for our shared success and ultimately the satisfaction and benefit of our customers," noted Mr. Kent Thexton, Chief Marketing and Data Officer, mm02 and president, Genie. For consumers, open standards ensure genuine and true freedom of choice. They will also enable consumers to retain control of their own information and services usage. An additional benefit is the intuitive common usability of the mobile services.”
Openwave has a long history of creating innovative technologies for the communications industry and collaborating with partners as well as competitors. The company believes that ecosystem development based on open standards will be the key to industry momentum in 2002. Openwave has made contributions to open standards groups, including the Liberty Alliance, GSMA M-Services, IM and MMS interoperability, the WAP Forum, W3C, 3GPP, 3GPP2, CDG, Synch ML Forum and the Wireless Village initiative. <<
Kissing and making up:
>> Openwave Chief Backs Down in Nokia Spat
6th February 2002
No really, everything's fine...
Don Listwin, CEO of mobile software company Openwave, has backed down in his war of words with Nokia.
Earlier this week, Listwin accused Nokia of trying to impose its own proprietary specifications as industry standards and claimed the Finnish giant was unfairly excluding Openwave from an industry group.
However, the outgoing boss now claims that quotes attributed to him in Monday's Financial Times article are not true and that his comments were blown out of proportion.
He told the Finnish daily Helsingin Sanomat: "They only asked me if Nokia is going to become the next Microsoft which my reply was 'no, not in a million years'."
He added: "By creating standards Nokia is driving the industry forward, not forcing others to join them."
Listwin said the two companies have enjoyed a good relationship over the past six months and added: "My statement in the FT was referring to our past experiences and did not accurately describe any future possibilities." <<
The spat:
>> Nokia vs Openwave: Handhelds at Dawn
4th February 2002
Silicom.com
Openwave chief executive Don Listwin has hit out at Nokia for excluding it from a mobile industry standards body.
Openwave is claiming that Nokia is abusing its market-leading position and unfairly excluding it from the group. He told the Financial Times Nokia is "trying to impose its own standard as the industry standard."
Nokia hit back, claiming that Openwave and its previous incarnation, Phone.com, did not have an unblemished record on promoting open standards. However, they have promised to involve Openwave in the development of its as yet unnamed standards body in due course.
As Phone.com, Openwave developed the technology that became the WAP standard, and its WAP browser technology is used by a number of mobile handset manufacturers, including Motorola.
However, Nokia is moving into Phone.com's territory, licensing its WAP browser, as well as MMS, SMS, xHTML and SyncML technology and its Series 60 handset platform to rival handset manufacturers.
Matsushita was the first to sign up to use them, announcing a deal last November. <<
First report of the spat
>> Nokia 'Imposing Its Standard On Industry'
Richard Waters in New York
Nick George in Stockholm
Financial times
February 3 2002
The main competitor to Nokia in creating software for mobile data networks has accused the Finnish company of shutting it out of efforts to develop a common standard for the wireless industry.
The move proves Nokia is "trying to impose its own standard as the industry standard", said Don Listwin, chief executive of Openwave.
Niklas Savander, vice-president Nokia Mobile Software, countered that Openwave had "not been the model child of openness" itself in the past. However, he added that the US company was likely to be "among the first new members" once Nokia is ready to admit outsiders.
The skirmishes over software standards reflects Nokia's efforts to stop Microsoft from dominating the young mobile data world as it has in the personal computer business.
If Microsoft or another company succeeds in controlling the operating system behind mobile data networks, the highly profitable Nokia could face the fate of low-margin PC makers.
However, that has raised questions about Nokia's use of its own commanding market position in the mobile industry to dominate the search for a common standard. The company said last November that it would start offering its own software to handset makers when it invited companies to join an initiative to create a common standard.
Mr Listwin said that he had asked Jorma Ollila, Nokia chairman, if Openwave could join the group, but had been rebuffed.
Nokia is acting "the way Apple would have if it had had a 40 per cent share", Mr Listwin added - a reference to Nokia's control of both hardware and operating system software. Mobile communications companies would end up facing higher costs if the Finnish company succeeded in imposing its own approach, he said.
Openwave developed the WAP technology that lay behind the first attempts to provide mobile data service. It claims its software is in use on roughly two-thirds of the computer servers that run mobile data networks around the world, as well as half of all mobile handsets.
Mr Savander said that the first part of Nokia's push for standardisation had been focused mainly on telecoms operators and handset vendors, rather than other technology companies. However, the first members of the initiative are now finalising the terms and conditions that will allow more members to join, which should open the way for groups such as Openwave.
While questioning Openwave's record in open software standards, Mr Savander said the US company appeared to have changed its stance. Mr Listwin had shown readiness to use open systems at his previous post as a leading executive at Cisco Systems, the dominant maker of data-networking equipment for wireline networks, he added. <<
- Eric - |
