Yesterday's news of Berlin-based Plazes getting consumed by Nokia was overshadowed today with news from a London press conference that Nokia will acquire the remaining 52% of Symbian it didn't already own for $410M.  They then plan to follow the Android and LiMo for-free model, and offer Symbian as an open source mobile OS under the consortia management of the newly formed Symbian Foundation.  Initial foundation members include AT&T, Broadcom, DoCoMo, Ericsson, Freescale, LG Electronics, Motorola, Orange, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, STMicroelectronics, Texas Instruments and Vodafone.  

With Symbian commanding 60% market share in the mobile OS smartphone space today, the move sends clear a message to Apple and Google...  Nokia is in the fight for mindshare with developers and users in what I think we'll reminisce on 5 years from now as the true beginning of the mobile Web era.  

...is the sentiment from Stefan Constantinescu at IntoMobile on the arrival of the 3G iPhone.  Like Stephan, I was equally disappointed and had guessed Apple might break the rules again, but this time with a game-changing move to evolve beyond archaic device subsidy business models.  That doesn't appear like it's going to happen, so as a result, expect more lockdown and control over what you can see, and what you can use. 

Google's My Location works better than an MPC/GMLC in terms of responsiveness and performance. I'm still not exactly sure how it works (Google won't tell me), but had a hunch it was a crowdsourced database of published information from millions of mobile users unknowingly volunteering to the system through Google Maps usage. Ted Morgan's comment on my theory, however, made me second guess these assumptions. With Skyhook already investing heavily in mapping wifi access points with drive-by-surveys, why not capture the cell side of the wireless airwaves? Consider this snippet from the Geolocation API description (yes, there's an API coming from Google...)

Many devices do not have native access to GPS or other location data. Additionally, GPS can take a long time to get an accurate location fix, drains battery, and does not work indoors. Because of these problems, the location API also has the ability to send various signals that the devices has access to (nearby cell sites, wifi nodes, etc) to a third-party location service provider, who can resolve the signals into a location estimate.

It's the third-party location service provider reference that's interesting – in addition to Ted’s comments…

I didn't buy the first iPhone.  I would have if it allowed me to take my existing SIM and pop it in, but that wasn't an unlocked option.  The locked-in two-year at&t commitment to voluntarily imprison myself was luring for sure, but in the end I converted to a skeptical technology laggard in exchange for freedom.  Despite the lockdown I avoided, Apple has nonetheless reached the mobile masses and some industry guru's argue they've changed the mobile industry.  Certainly, convincing at&t to give up applications power and taxes in exchange for exclusivity is one win; a touch screen changed the UI paradigm; and Apple is the first company in history to get people using the Internet on a mobile device in any meaningful volume.  All of these may be leading to changes, but for the most part, the US mobile market is still in the third world of development when it comes to consumer wireless freedom-of-choice. 

Here's a what if scenario though...  The 3G iPhone is due June 9.  What if Apple somehow works their magic and sells it as an unlocked, unsubsidized device in addition to carrier-subsidized options?   Would you pay the freedom premium?  I would.  And I imagine millions of others would as well.  And that would fix the US mobile market because consumer purchasing patterns would change through growing knowledge that mobile devices and their applications are available to purchase from alternative retailers and lifestyle points of sale beyond limited carrier shelf-spaces.   That would change everything, for everyone...

On the topic of openness at the 2008 Dow Jones Wireless Innovations conference...

All carriers have a lot of baggage.  We know we are hard to do business with. We can be caught up in our own bureaucracy with the size of our business.

We are working on a new approach for all our platforms so developers can have access to open software development kits and applications programming interfaces.  We are very excited about a set of open Android APIs and a variety of devices using them.  I hope it will generate development of not dozens but tens of thousands of new applications that will spawn a new level of excitement in this industry.

-Joe Sims, T-Mobile 

Google has really thought through what Apple has just begun to unlock.  Developers are now bringing up media applications on the systems and then will turn to work on location-based services and systems optimization for lowest power and maximum throughput.

-Sy Choudhury, QCT on the topic of Androids port to Qualcomm 3G solutions, which will initially include 5 new handset releases in the next 12 months   

-EE Times 

Thomas Landspurg, CTO of 8Motions and an LBS blogger, has launched opencellid, an open source project with the goal of collecting Cell-ID lat/longs and building an openmap database for developers to use freely.  Like OpenStreetMap, this service will only get better if people participate.  I applaud the effort.  It's great to see folks pressing past old in-network ways to extract location, as well as challenging new formidable ways and sources.  Don't give up!

Users of a handful of LBS apps on Alltel's deck now have the same freedoms of autonomous GPS and can use their apps outside of Alltel coverage areas, or anywhere there's other CDMA coverage covered by an Alltel roaming agreement.  Roaming has always been a big problem for LBS based on an SS7 circuit-switched architecture, but with GPS in devices, the smarts now extend to the edge of the network rendering it irrelevant other than to serve as an Internet-connection utility to connect back to a GPS aiding server/service and enable a quicker client fix.  ...And even these servers/services no longer need to be in-network elements.  I'd argue they should be sold as IT products, with IT-like simple annual licensing.  Or, if that resistance continues, use NASA A-GPS services.   

It's not enough these days to talk about what you purportedly walk; the doers must do, walk the walk - as it were.  So in the spirit of learning what we're all about at Sonim for building & selling to other tough-guys who genuinely earn their tag-right everyday, our European Sales Leader (Albert Costilo) suggested we venture into the extreme outdoor challenging environments we tout as mantra to better understand those who live it everyday.  Our destination?  The European Arctic Circle, deep into the Swedish northern wilderness by way of snowmobile. 

Joakim Wiklund (our fearless CTO, mathlete genius, and expat Ericsson inventor - who left them to help Sonim build our phone) helped organize the trip, and he snapped these photos.   Strap on your helmet meat men if you're in for and up to the ride.  Or take the challenge yourself and contact the best of the best team-leaders and builders Swedish toughmen offer from outside the Ice Hotel.  Per and Jesper are awaiting your call.  Hooah!

By now, hopefully you've heard others voice rant against a tyrannical US wireless subscription lockdown and consumer imprisonment over device freedom and choice.  It's indeed the underlying argument for the 700Mhz movement for open access conditions.  There are other carrier-device subtleties overlooked though in the debate and movement - like device price drops - or subscription price lock-in benefits like discounted device upgrades - and other subsidies that further limit your choice and game you to sheepishly succumb and sign your freedom away for a 2 year go-to-jail sentence.  Case in point for these overlooked sentences might well be a phone manufactured by my employer, Sonim.  The device is indestructible, and for US Carriers building consumer loyalty at the expense of devices suppliers reduced to subsidies, it sucks.  Here's why.  Chances are it will last for years [3 years is in fact our warrantee] which means it's not on the same list of other plastics with a 12 month refresh rate common for most wireless users today, which in turn means it's less likely a carrier won't get upgrade subscription dollars.  That's not good - for them. They need to lock you into more contractual obligations for connectivity, and that means more newer device lure more often, which in turn diminishes value for ODMs in the process, which in turn is forcing some to move laterally through the value chain and into content, applications & services businesses, which subsequently screws up the ecosystem for content and app providers vying for a small part of the wireless wallet - all of this is a deadly disease slowly nipping away at all involved.   

So, until the promise of 700Mhz policy offers more wireless freedom-of-choice, Sonim will continue business operations overseas in more open markets because... 

...we don't expect to see it from mobile operators (in the US) - if the phone doesn't eventually break, how would they persuade people to upgrade? - but the XP1 rugged phone should be useful for mobile staff and (let's face it) pretty much anyone.

-TechWorld 

With all the hubbub around openness - open networks, open business models, open sources of software, open platforms, and lots of open mouths about them all, I've come to the conclusion this is all more about a struggle over power and establishments than technology, with the decentralized under empowered gaining the strategic advantage and setting the tempo for conflict. There are thousands of coders out there always looking for the next opensource offering that holds the promise of disintermediating the established licensor's of royalty based bliss despised by those on the opposite side of the receiving end.   And the opposite side is good, really good at what they do because it's a shared mission, with a singular objective that can't be defeated.  Google knows this, and Android is the weapon.  Dash does to, and Openmoko is theirs... uh I mean ours. 

So I agree, and because I do, here's a quick survey...  How many of you would prefer to code with MicroEmulator over Java ME tools from Sun?  Answers will be taken quite seriously, and I will include the chosen in the next version of product.