Its Official: The Walled Garden is Coming Down

December 6th, 2007 . by Abhishek Tiwari

Most of you know about the infamous mobile Walled Garden, enforced by the big boys of wireless in the North American market. This approach to lock the wireless offering has led to significant frustrations for the service / application providers and subscribers alike.

The walled garden established by the carriers, allowed them to have complete / absolute control of the content and applications provided to the handset base. Application developers were at the mercy of the carrier, who essentially controlled most aspects of their business. Right from application functionality, marketing/promotions, discoverability and pricing were mandated by the carriers. Unless you as an app developer partnered with the carrier and deployed a native application (specific to their ecosystem), you had little or no chance of getting into the mobile ecosystem.

As expected this mode of operation has received lot of heat from the application developer community over time. Lately the pressure increased after Google decided to throw down the gauntlet for the upcoming 700 MHz auction. Google’s approach to open the ecosystem drew a fair bit of heat from the incumbents (obviously).

However one thing was certain, the mobile landscape was about to change. Participation from Google and other’s with the strong software background meant that carriers could no longer operate in a close environment. They would have to rethink their strategy.

Many of us thought that this would happen over the next few years and the carriers would like to milk this setup as much as possible. However to everyone’s surprise the industry has made significant leaps in the direction over last six months. So much so that I can say that the garden is officially going away. Let’s look at these key announcements and changes, which were responsible for this change:

Google’s Parlay into Wireless

I have covered this news in detail on this blog. You can read my analysis here, here and here.

The takeaway is that, Google’s introduction has been game changing and has effected the roots of the wireless industry. With Google entering the arena and pushing the “Open” agenda, there is no place for the walled garden. The consumer truly wins in this arrangement. Just last week they confirmed of their participation in the upcoming auctions.

Sprint Opens XOHM

XOHM, the WiMax (4G) network is scheduled to launch early next year. This is a huge bet from Sprint and they are really pushing the wireless data services envelope in this country. Once launched it will be the fastest wireless data service in the market.

Back in October they announced their business model for XOHM. To the surprise of many they took the leap and offered an “Open” model. This structure enables them to simply focus on the wireless data service and allow any device (with the chip) and any service to partake within the ecosystem. An interesting move, considering they being one of the supporters of the Walled Garden. Read more in my post on this subject.

This was a significant shift in their overall wireless strategy, thus pushing the bulldozer even further.

Android and iPhone SDK

iPhone was a significant launch. However it still did not allow fair access to 3rd party applications. So in October his Jobness announced availability of the true iPhone SDK in the Q1 2008 timeframe. Although the details are scarce at this point, the SDK is expected to allow 3rd party app developers to deploy applications which can leverage all capabilities of the iPhone.

Google on the other hand launched the open device operating system, called Android and established the Open Handset Alliance. This alliance brings together various OEM vendors and carriers alike. The idea is to provide a open operating system, which will enable carriers and OEMs to enable a flexible open ecosystem, where 3rd party developers and service providers can easily deploy applications. Although the handsets aren’t coming out till mid 2008, many remain hopeful of this effort. Read my early analysis on this here.

Verizon Goes “Any Apps, Any Device”

Just last week Verizon, who is one of the most powerful backers of the walled garden announced that it was opening up the ecosystem. They would allow any devices with user selected applications to run on their network as far as they were CDMA compatible.

This is a tectonic shift from their historical thought process, where they have kept their devices pretty much locked. It’s speculated that Google’s push for Open standards in the FCC auction is forcing Verizon to go down this path. Many are still skeptical about them delivering a true open environment. However I consider this as one of the final nails in the “Walled Garden” coffin. It is also reported that Verizon will be joining Google’s Open Handset Alliance.

So in conclusion, the aforementioned announcements, which have taken place over past 6 months truly have a game changing impact. 2008 and 2009 will be very interesting years for the wireless industry in this country. Tis will open up multiple opportunities for 3rd party services who could think outside the box and potentially start creating mashups for the mobile ecosystem.