Andreas Constantinou

Research Director, VisionMobile

Eight Centers of Gravity: The New Rules of Mobile
15 minutes, 7.3mb, recorded 2009-03-05
Andreas Constantinou

In the beginning of the mobile industry, each player supplied every part of its vertical structure. By 2002, componentization meant there were industrial design houses, manufacturers of both software and hardware components, and more, broadening the involvement in the creation of each mobile phone offering.

Andreas Constantinou says now the focus is on eight players with established platforms, each with a small economy building around it, and the "value wars" are moving up the stack, from hardware to software to the applications, to the UI, and finally to the services. Which will take off, finally, in the marketplace? Each has unique challenges, the establishment of a robust platform, the focus to avoid fragmentation, the ability to attract and market services. Enter open-source mobile.

Most developers understand the meaning of general terms of open-source licensing agreements, "permissive," "copy-left," "non-copy-left,"  but in the mobile world, Constantinou says, it's the governance models that matter. He loosely outlines the governance structures of the LiMo, Symbian, and Android foundations, commenting on several others about the kinds of issues to keep in mind.


Andreas Constantinou, Research Director at analyst firm VisionMobile, oversees the research, advisory and industry mapping projects. He has nine years experience in research, development and strategy in mobile, specialising in the handset ecosystem, software strategy, open source, service delivery, SIM cards and device management. Andreas has worked on product and marketing strategy projects for clients including Sony Ericsson, France Telecom, T-Mobile, OMTP, Qualcomm, Gemalto, Red Bend, Abaxia, TAT and Trolltech, and authored numerous research reports. Andreas teaches the Mobile Open Source workshop, part of VisionMobile’s 360 degree training courses on complex industry sectors. Prior to founding VisionMobile, Andreas spent 3 years at Orange’s Research & Innovation division, including serving as a technology lead for the Orange-Microsoft relationship. His interests include uncovering under-the-radar industry trends and pursuing human-centric design.

References:

  • http://america.ecomm.ec/2009/new-rules-of-mobile.php
  • http://www.visionmobile.com/profile.php (graphic at this site)

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