[re-posted from the Weekly i-mode Business Newsletter] The OSTI standard announced by DoCoMo and Intel sounds esoteric and while it is a little hard to fathom the business case the key motivation being sold to potential subscribers and the industry is the ability to literally hit a "Personal" button and switch between your personal mobile phone configuration and your business mobile phone configuration.
The Standard has a non-negotiable function requirement that hitting the Personal button will always work, no matter how corrupt the other configuration becomes.
The deal is that in its search to reduce mobile phone development costs, and to avoid being in the clutches of Microsoft, DoCoMo has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in supporting Linux-based and other developments. These "other" non-Microsoft OSs completely dominate mobile phone installations in Japan, and a good illustration is the recent deal announced by Aplix which clearly spells out that strategy:
... [handset] manufacturers are under tremendous pressure to develop, test and deliver multi-functional mobile devices -- with ever-increasing data features and capabilities -- according to the different operator specifications faster than ever before. It is a real challenge for them to meet all of these requirements, re-use them in other phone models, and replace certain components (to differentiate their models) easily in a cost-efficient manner.
Aplix's MOAP-based RI (the integrated solution of its own middleware framework, the MOAP Linux platform co-developed by NEC, Panasonic Mobile and NTT DoCoMo, and the different middleware / software partners it has lined up with), offers its customers a broad palette of functions as the RI allows other third-party middleware and applications to be incorporated easily and efficiently, while streamlining the development process and keeping costs down at the same time.
Kiyohito Nagata, Vice President and Managing Director of Product Department at NTT DoCoMo, said, "NTT DoCoMo has been working with NEC and Panasonic Mobile to develop the MOAP Linux platform for mobile phones. We expect that integration of Aplix's middleware framework over MOAP will easily enhance further functionality of mobile phones."
Trouble is, corporate users couldn't give a damn about mobile phone development costs, and they want connectivity and integration with Microsoft and office software. Hence the rationale for the OSTI.
-- Odd Spot - Aplix has developed its own secure virtualisation initiative which competes with OSTI.
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