Executive Summary

Much has changed from the world of open operating Contents systems of 2003. The mobile software market has Chapter A: Mobile Software Today: Open OSs, grown into a landscape of 100s of vendors where and other Misperceptions understanding the roles, functionality, lines of A.1. The New Generation of Operating Systems partnership and competition across software products A.2. Linux: Myth and Reality is a complex endeavour, even for a seasoned industry A.3. Java: A False Start, But Efforts Continue observer. This paper aims to help change that. A.4. against A.5. Conclusions and Market Trends The paper firstly presents the key software layers for mobile phones today and explains the importance of Chapter B: Making Sense of Operating Systems, UI application execution environments and UI frameworks. Frameworks and Application Environments Section A then examines common misperceptions in Chapter : Product reviews the software market of 2006; the flexible OS genre as In-Depth reviews of A la Mobile, Access Linux the successor to the open OSs, the myth and reality Platform, Adobe Flash Lite, GTK+, MiniGUI, Mizi behind Linux for mobile phones, and the false start but Prizm, Montavista Mobilinux, Nokia , Obigo, continued efforts around J2ME. Chapter B compares Openwave Midas, Qualcomm Brew, SavaJe, several software platforms for product functionality, Symbian OS, Trolltech Qtopia, UIQ And Windows licensees and speed of market penetration. Mobile.

A reference section follows, consisting of 2-page Chapter D: Trends in the Mobile Software Market reviews of 16 key software products, covering historical Open OSes are out; Flexible OSs are in product background, positioning, technology, strategy, Commoditisation of the core OS technology and including the author’s critical viewpoint. Verticalisation of technology supply Consolidation of platform demand The final chapter analyses the five key trends that will 2006: The turning point for Linux overshadow the mobile software market in 2006-2009. Firstly, software flexibility vs openness will be the Methodology critical theme for successful operating systems. To research the market and products analysed in this Secondly, as the sale value line moves towards paper, the author conducted interviews with A la Mobile, middleware and upper software layers, so the core Adobe, Microsoft, Mizi Research, MontaVista, Obigo, technology will commoditise. Thirdly, Openwave, PalmSource, Qualcomm QIS, SavaJe, technology verticalisation is gradually taking place, with Symbian, Trolltech and UIQ. The views and information vendors merging or partnering to offer out-of-the-box presented in this paper as well as the product reviews pre-integrated software stacks. In symmetry, the are independent and in no way biased towards the demand for software platforms is consolidating, with not sponsor of this paper. only manufacturers, but also enterprises and mobile operators making a choice of platform. Acknowledgements

We believe that 2006 marks a turning point in the The author would like express his gratitude to a number as a platform, not only of individuals who assisted with information, and due to ’s recent commitment, but also the feedback on this paper, during the project research: wealth of products and support services from a growing Hampus Jakobsson, Guy Agin, Philippe Silberzahn, commercial community. Longer term, we believe Linux- Franck Lefevre, Matt Lewis, David Wood, Don Liberty, based platforms will prevail over many of today’s Richard Kinder, Jeff Waugh, Bill Weinberg, Madeline credible contestants, as will Microsoft’s Windows Duva, Juha Christensen, Mark Melling, Andy Tiller, Mobile. Peter Whale and other individuals who wish to remain anonymous

About VisionMobile web: www.visionmobile.com VisionMobile is a boutique firm delivering strategy email: [email protected] consulting, industry research and technology training in address: 84 Kirkland Avenue, Clayhall, the wireless sector. VisionMobile brings together Ilford Essex IG5 0TN, UK passionate people with industry and technology know- phone: +44 (207) 099 3934 how and innovative thinking.

About the author

Dr. Andreas Constantinou, Director of VisionMobile, is an analyst and consultant with eight years experience in research, development and strategy in telecoms. His areas of focus are mobile handsets, mobile software, device management, operator strategy, wireless market trends and disruptive technologies. Andreas has worked on numerous product and marketing strategy projects for companies including Orange, France Telecom R&D, T-Mobile, Idem, and Red Bend, in addition to authoring research reports and white papers for analyst firms Informa and ARCchart. He is also the Technology Editor and a monthly columnist for telecoms magazines ‘InfoCom’ and ‘Mobile Telephony’ and is regularly invited at international telecoms conferences as a speaker and chairman. Andreas holds a Ph.D. in Image & Video Compression from the Disclaimers University of Bristol, UK. VisionMobile believes the statements contained in this publication to be based upon information that we consider reliable, but we do not represent that it is accurate or complete, and it should not be relied upon as such. Opinions expressed are current opinions as of the date appearing on this publication only and the information, including the opinions contained herein, are subject to change without notice.

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Mobile Software Today: A Open OSs, Linux and other Misperceptions

A.1 | The New Generation of Operating Systems

A conceptual model for software applications, but are not visible to the user.

Mobile phone software has come a long way in Examples are messaging and the last few years. The industry of mobile communications engines, WAP/web page software circa 2002-3 comprised of the so-called renderers, multimedia codecs, security open operating systems for high-end handsets, subsystem and device management. and the little known world of software vendors  The application execution environment for mainstream handsets that worked within (AEE), an application manager and set closed manufacturer circles. application programming interfaces ()

The software landscape in 2006 is greatly more which allow external developers or complex. The boundary between software for manufacturers to develop handset high-end and mainstream handsets has almost applications. disappeared. Software products from tens of  The user interface (UI) framework , a set major vendors can be mixed and matched in of graphics components (screens, buttons, countless permutations. Understanding the roles, lists, etc) and an interaction framework that functionality, lines of partnership and competition gives handset applications their look & feel. across software products is a complex endeavour, even for a seasoned industry  The application suite , the set of core observer. handset applications such as the idle- screen, dialler, application launcher or menu To help the reader navigate along the complex screen, contacts, calendar, inbox, browser labyrinth of vendors and products, we present a shell and settings screens that form the conceptual model for the mobile phone software interface that the phone user experiences that makes up a typical mid-range or high-end most of the time. handset. Phone software can be visualised as a software stack of functional layers, from bottom Reusing a term from the Linux world, a to top: distribution is the complete, integrated stack of software components, from top to bottom that  The kernel , the core of the software which powers a mobile handset. Within this includes hardware drivers, memory, conceptualisation of software, we take the term filesystem and management. operating system to mean a pre-integrated

 The middleware layer, the set of peripheral software stack that includes the kernel and software libraries which enable handset drivers. The depth of a software stack VisionMobile research 2

“represents a trade-off between completeness functionality corresponding to each layer; the and flexibility, between time-to-market and room examples shown contain a degree of to add visible value”, as notes OSDL’s Bill oversimplification as a product never neatly fits Weinberg. into any single category.

An often-used term in describing software stacks From horizontal to vertical

is the value line , which we define as the point in The conceptual model of stacked horizontal the software stack below which vendors are layers of functionality becomes in reality much finding it difficult to demand per-unit royalties more complex. Each product typically has to use from product sales. As the commoditisation of and integrate functionality from several different the kernel and core OS increases, so the value layers and components; for example a Java AEE line moves upwards towards the middleware and product has to integrate all the way from the upper layers of the software stack. kernel to the UI framework.

The diagram on this page visualises the To tame this complexity and deliver ‘plug-and- simplified handset software stack, and gives play’ components to handset manufacturers, examples of vendors and products that deliver software vendors are expanding to deliver functionality integrated across the stack. Simplified software stack showing key building blocks Examples are Esmertec’s acquisition of Coretek of a mobile phone (an applications developer), Tao’s evolution of its Intent platform into an application environment, Aplix’s product evolution to a complete software stack and Flash Lite’s

Application Suite ongoing evolution to a full UI framework. This e.g. Obigo, Jataayu, Access verticalisation trend marks a full circle back to third party applications the status quo of the fully integrated software stacks of the 1990s. User Interface Framework e.g. GTK+, miniGUI, Trolltech Qtopia, TAT, Digital Airways, MSX

| Open OS: A defunct term Application Execution Environment e.g. Java, Adobe Flash Lite, Openwave MIDAS, Trolltech Qtopia, Qualcomm BREW, .NET Compact Framework It is worth reflecting on how open operating systems have evolved. In 2003, only three short years ago, open OSs were a hot topic in industry Middleware e.g. Open Plug, SKY MobileMedia, Real, Gstreamer, circles. Back then, open OSs were seen as the mFormation answer to the increasing phone featuritis and

considered a one-way street for most handset Kernel and Hardware Drivers manufacturers. The stakes were high for who

Software e.g. Nucleus, MontaVista MobiLinux, Wind River, Qualcomm AMSS/REX, Symbian OS, ENEA OSE was going to win the war of the OSs: Nokia (who

was behind Symbian), Microsoft or Palm OS?

The stakes seemed to reflect the common Hardware platform

e.g. TI, Marvel (Intel), Infineon, Qualcomm, Freescale, learnings from the war of desktop operating Philips, Skyworks systems, where only a single winner survives. Hardware

Fast forward three years. The market, far from Source: VisionMobile consolidating around one or two of major VisionMobile research 3 operating systems, has seen the number of OS, paramount importance to the community of user interfaces and application execution developers today is the AEEs’ degree of environments actually increase and diversify. consistency across device models, The story is no longer manufacturers, operators and regions, rather about a war between Microsoft and Nokia. than their degree of openness (as application execution environments are open by design). Michael Mace, ex Chief Competitive Officer for Palm, puts together a compelling justification for the lack of a single winner in the OS war. | The flexible OS According to Mace, the desktop OS strategy follows a virtuous circle: a richer platform leads We believe that a new term for operating to more applications, which leads to more systems and needs to be coined, for which we hardware sales and therefore more platform propose the term ‘flexible’ operating system. The sales. “The process feeds off itself, and pretty flexibility stems from three very important soon one OS has 90% of the market and the qualities that a competitive and complete OS other is called ”, Mace says. However must possess today: this virtuous circle does not apply to mobile handsets. Whereas in the desktop world the OS Rapid UI prototyping tools is what gives power to commoditised hardware, Operators have gotten their way with in the mobile world the purchase decision is customising the handset iconography, the menu driven by retail price, cosmetics and features, order, preloaded content and settings. For not software platforms. operator-customised devices to truly differentiate, a software stack needs to offer tools that As we argue next, the term open OS has facilitate rapid, but in-depth customisation of the become defunct, a little known, but an UI including the dialler and home-screen increasingly important fact to understanding the application, as well as the key applications such mobile software landscape of today. as browser and messaging that form part of the Open OSes was a term coined to contrast the user journey. A flexible OS or software stack will ‘openness’ of operating systems for mobile offer designers (and their customers) greater, phones such as Symbian OS and Windows cost-effective freedom at implementing radically Mobile, to the closed nature of the manufacturer different user experiences. home-grown operating systems, such as Nokia’s A consistent application execution NOS and EMP’s OPA. The openness stems environment from the ability for operators to customise the look & feel of the handset and for software Not only are application execution environments developers to develop and deploy applications diverse (examples include S60, UIQ, Qtopia, on the handset. Java, BREW, Flash Lite and Openwave MIDAS) but they are also fragmented, with Java It is a widely known fact today that all operating environments showing incompatibilities across systems, whether ‘open’ or ‘closed’ are routinely device models, manufacturers, operator variants customised to operator requirements. In addition, and regional variants. A flexible OS or software the openness of the platform to third party stack will stretch across platforms, devices and developers has been shown to be of secondary manufacturers but not alter its characteristics. importance. Plenty of ‘open’ application Equally importantly, AEEs are competing not execution environments exist today, such as only on breadth of handset implementation, but Java, Flash Lite, S60 and Qtopia. What is of VisionMobile research 4 on the depth of integration with native device case with BREW) or eventually morph into APIs. complete top-half software stacks (as it the case with Flash Lite). Commercial, OS-independent AEEs are attempting to grab an ever-greater share of the Portability across chipsets and reference device market. The key contenders, BREW, designs

Flash Lite and Openwave MIDAS (in addition to A flexible OS should be easily portable to commercial J2ME platform products) will be diverse chipsets and hardware reference facing overweight problems; to deeply integrate designs. There are around 15-20 2G and 3G with diverse handsets, AEEs have to cover or reference designs in the market today. Such a even replicate more and more handset portability will offer ODMs and ODEs more functionality. There are two avenues open: AEEs choice in selecting the reference design that will either have to ensure manufacturers develop suits a particular customer project. their handsets for the environment (as is the

A.2 | Linux: Myth and Reality

First things first. According to the homepage of Linux is unlike most other operating systems, kernel.org, “Linux is a clone of the operating due to its community-driven nature and its steer system , written from scratch by Linus by Linus Torvalds, Linux’s creator and father Torvalds with assistance from a loosely-knit figure. This makes the operating system unique team of hackers across the Net.” in several important ways, some positive and some negative: Linux today is one of the most popular operating systems for web servers, consumer electronics  The Linux kernel supports more and embedded devices. Linux software expands processors types than any other across a wide range of market segments, such operating system . No other operating as mp3 players, internet TVs, disk-on-chip system runs in everything from a mobile media, network routers, bar-code readers, phone to a TiVo and a radio controlled airplane entertainment systems and telephone helicopter to a network router, based on exchanges. diverse processor families and computing environments. The Linux kernel (available from kernel.org) forms the core of the operating system and  Linux is evolution, not intelligent design . includes hardware drivers, memory, filesystem There is no design plan, feature requests or and process management, The kernel is roadmap for the Linux kernel. New supplemented with hundreds or thousands of hardware and features are added on an ad additional software components to form a hoc basis. There are no fixed APIs and the complete operating system, termed a design of the kernel is in constant flux. This distribution – in the case of desktop Linux, enables developers to ruthlessly optimise there are hundreds of distributions available and evolve code without worrying about such as those from , Debian, Suse, retaining backward compatibility – this Novell and Ubuntu. essentially amounts to faster evolution of the operating system. VisionMobile research 5

 Linux kernel modifications are illegal and other manufacturers from adopting the platform, unethical . Linux has been designed to while DoCoMo’s Symbian-based platform is ensure that community contributions to the Japan-specific. Nucleus as a proprietary RTOS Linux code are not abused; a vendor lacks the feature-sophistication often required for providing modifications to the Linux kernel powering mainstream and high-end phones. must share them back with the community. This leaves Linux-based software stacks as a Closed kernel modifications are generally good choice for manufacturers looking for long- regarded as either illegal or unethical. term investments into a software platform for their mid-range and high-end handsets. At the  Linux platforms (including mobile same time, Linux’s lack of a dominant vendor, platforms) are differentiated too far down ensures that manufacturer risk from vendor lock- the software stack. “The outcome of that is ins is minimized. that when you look at the two dozen or so As a result, most tier-1 manufacturers are today Linux phones on the market, they're investing in significant R&D efforts on Linux- relatively un-related, in that they run Linux, based OSes, while Motorola has adopted Linux but they have little else in common.”, for its high-end and mid-range devices. Similarly according to Bill Weinberg, spokesperson for major operators, in their strategic evaluation for the OSDL, as quoted on of software platforms for handset service LinuxDevices.com in December 2005. development and deployment, Linux appears

 Commercial distributions take out the rather favourable. risk . Commercial vendors selectively Taking Linux to mobile phones integrate Linux code components to form a product, and add predictability (in terms of The software that one can obtain from the roadmaps), support, warranties, primary Linux download site, www.kernel.org, is documentation, and can still be royalty-free. on average only 10% of the software needed to power a mobile phone. For several historical reasons, development of Linux software has been focused on the desktop, enterprise and | Linux for mobile handsets lately in the embedded and consumer electronics market. Why Linux ?

For a manufacturer looking to invest in an The Linux kernel and other open source operating system to support the increasing components are only a small part of the Linux complexity of its current and future handsets, software distributions that ship in mobile phones; there are five choices: BREW, Microsoft, a large number of closed source components Symbian, Linux-based OSs and Nucleus-based and proprietary patches have to be added. By stacks. BREW is largely a CDMA play, often far the most important (and complex) such criticised for its high per-unit royalties. Microsoft, component is the telephony software is mostly viewed an option for Tier-2 and Tier-3 responsible for call management and 2G/3G manufacturers looking for a one-stop solution for data communication. Telephony stacks are creating handsets targeted at the enterprise and notoriously difficult to stabilise and mature. prosumer segments. Symbian is now of interest Furthermore, Linux-based distributions have to only to Sony Ericsson, DoCoMo and Nokia; the be optimised for mobile phones to address Finnish giant is practically in operational control issues such as power management, real-time of the Symbian platform, which discourages VisionMobile research 6 performance, start-up time, in-place execution requirements, which amounts a long and from memory, and compressed file systems. arduous process.

Naturally, the handset application suite also has Manufacturers, led by Motorola, have created to be developed – this is the idle-screen, dialler, internal Linux distributions for their handsets, contacts, calendar, messaging, media starting with Motorola’s A760 launched in 2003. management, browser and phone settings. Software from commercial vendors MontaVista, Handset-specific middleware such as device Mizi and Trolltech has been featured on millions management, over the air (FOTA), of mobile phones to date, while open-source Java, data synchronization, and graphics products such as GTK+ (a UI framework) and engines must also be integrated into the Gstreamer (a multimedia framework) are distribution. increasingly featured on commercial mobile handsets. Linux has never adopted one single UI. Its architectural openness and vendor Taking the code to a product, the first independence has spawned tens if not hundreds commercial mobile Linux distributions offering of user interface frameworks for both desktop complete software stacks were announced in and embedded products. There are few 1H06, from A la Mobile, , commercial UI frameworks available today for Purple Labs and Aplix. The revenue model Linux-based mobile phones, namely Trolltech’s adopted historically by commercial Linux Qtopia family, Mizi’s Prizm and Digital Airways’ vendors has been a combination of per-unit Kaleido – open source projects GTK+ and royalty fees and per-seat licensing of MiniGUI have also been ported to mobile development tools, although royalty fees are devices. A range of commercial application becoming increasingly disused. execution environments are also available today for Linux-based mobile phones. These include Linux phones today Trolltechs’ Qtopia, Mizi’s Prizm, Openwave’s Motorola, NEC, and Samsung have MIDAS and Adobe’s Flash Lite. been the main device backers of Linux. There are about two dozen handset models which have shipped to date, including the Motorola | The commercial reality A768, E680i, E680, A760, A780, A910, A1200, E895, Rokr E2, NEC N901iC, N700i, N900il,

From Linux code to handset N902i, N902iX, Panasonic P700i, P9201i and P902i, Samsung SCH-i519, SCH-i819, SGH- Creating a software distribution for handsets is a i858, SGH-i878, BenQ-Siemens SXG75, Wistron complex undertaking. The distribution has to Neweb GW1 and the Vitelcom G500i. source components from different architecture source trees, and unify them. Mobile-specific OS Linux shipments have been traditionally strong in optimisations imply around 500 patches to the China, where certification requirements are kernel and the sourcing and integration of 10s of loose and the government promotes Linux additional middleware and application developments. Linux has surprised most components. Before being complete, a observers with its strong growth in the Japanese distribution has to be optimised for different market. This has been as a Linux-based processor architectures. Equally importantly, the platform (MOAP-L) has been developed by distribution has to be tested and verified for DoCoMo in partnership with NEC and Panasonic, compliance with both industry and operator both strong brands in the local market. VisionMobile research 7

According to Gartner, nearly 12 million Linux which it purchased in early 2006, and is known phones were sold globally by the end of 2005, to have been a bidder in the acquisition of with 2006 sales expected to rise to nearly 18 PalmSource in mid 2005. Motorola is also million phones. There were no sales of Linux- shipping phones using and based handsets in Western Europe and North Symbian/UIQ. America by end 2005, primarily due to the challenges involved with certifying Linux handsets in these markets and garnering | Benefits and Challenges of Linux operator support. A recent sign of change is the first Linux-based handset for European markets Linux’s open source, decentralised, and vendor- launched by French MVNO Neuf – the handset independent operational model offers a number supports GSM and WiFi, runs Qtopia and is of benefits for Linux-based phone product manufactured by a Chinese ODM. development:

Motorola has been the most vocal advocate of  Linux is designed to avoid single-vendor Linux, with 5 million Linux-based handsets domination , minimising the risk of vendor shipped by early 2006, with most running Qtopia lock-ins for device manufacturers. Core (previously named \Embedded) -based software, according to Trolltech (see product  The Linux kernel has been ported to review in Section C.14). As part of Motorola’s more than a dozen chipsets , making it the long-term plan to consolidate handset software most portable operating system to date in development into fewer platforms, the terms of application processors. Linux is manufacturer has since 2000 developed two also becoming the preferred ‘bring-up’ Linux platforms: EZX, an application suite built platform for hardware reference platforms. on top of Trolltech’s Qtopia Core (previously Qt/ Embedded) UI framework and a newer stack  Linux is cheap and open to innovation . that replaces EZX, referred to as the ’Linux- Linux’s decentralised, volunteer-based Java‘ platform. The Linux-Java platform is now community offers essential mobile software in version 6, targeting mid and high-end components for free and is also a hotbed of handsets, although it is not clear whether the innovation, as evidenced through its rapid platform contains any actual Java code, rather proliferation and Linux’s ties to the than just a virtual machine. According to several academic communities. sources, Motorola is planning to replace its  Linux’s widespread use in networked and proprietary P2K OS used in the RAZR and other embedded appliances, makes Linux-based handsets with Linux. Greg Besio, Software VP distributions both technically competent for Motorola, confirmed the manufacturer’s and cost-effective for converged devices . commitment to Linux in his keynote at LinuxWorld in August 2006, saying that Linux  Several governments , most notably China, will power more than half of Motorola’s phones support Linux and have been promoting or within the next two years. Motorola has also funding Linux projects. open sourced parts of its software stack for the

A1200, A780, E680, Rokr E2 as well as its MIDP3 implementation for Linux. At the same time, mobile Linux development faces several challenges: It’s worth noting that Motorola is also using TTPCom’s Ajar for mid- and low- end handsets, VisionMobile research 8

 The Linux kernel is optimised for GTK+ have been licensed under the Lesser desktop and embedded computing General Public License (LGPL) that is more environments, but not mobile handsets. permissive of derivative works. Other Linux distributions have to supplement the vendors such as Trolltech and Sleepycat kernel with telephony stacks, real-time have adopted dual licensing models. support, optimised power management, New developments in Linux productisation Flash filesystem, memory management and graphics support to name just a few. A number of vendors have announced complete technology productisation and support services Mobile Linux distributions lack the feature  for Linux handsets. These are essentially mobile set requested by network operators in Linux distributions that integrate an entire Europe and the US. In addition, mobile software stack for phones and provide essential operators are unfamiliar with the services such as software customisation, opportunities and idiosynchrasies of Linux interoperability testing and certification, such as and are hesitating to adopt Linux as a FCC and GCF. A la Mobile, Purple Labs, Aplix’s reliable operating system, with the notable BTO offering and Access Linux Platform, all exception of Vodafone. announced in 1H06, are the first commercial

 There is no consensus on Linux’s APIs. vendors offering productisation services. In This implies firstly that integration of parallel, Vodafone and DoCoMo’s partnership to software components within a distribution is develop a complete mobile Linux reference time-consuming and secondly that Linux implementation is another operator-orchestrated applications do not readily port across Linux move in the same direction. In Japan, NEC and handsets. Panasonic have long used a common version of Linux software stack, which has reduced costs.  A major operational and strategic challenge A second evolution is brewing. Until recently, the is mitigating legal challenges . Use of the Linux developer community has had no stable Linux kernel and numerous additional and standardised phone hardware platform to components is governed by the GPL license test mobile Linux on, as has been the case with (currently in version 2), which dictates that Microsoft’s early release of Compal AR9 software works derived from GPL’ed code platform and SavaJe’s Jasper J20 handset. This must come with complete source code, is changing with Trolltech’s Greenphone modifiable and redistributable by anyone developer kits expected in September 2006 and free of charge. This is a licensing model that Nokia’s earlier giveaway of 500 units of 770 critics of GPL, notably Microsoft, describe Internet tablets for $100. as ‘viral’, due to arising IP contamination concerns. Vendors are using a range of measures to allay legal concerns around GPL, copyright | Standardisation and patent issues, such as insurance, technical due diligence, legal due diligence There are several initiatives in the industry today and vendor indemnification clauses. A attempting to define common APIs and debate is in progress regarding whether the standards for mobile Linux. Linux kernel will adopt the stricter GPL v3 LiPS (Linux Phone Standards) is an industry license, currently in draft status and due to forum working to define common APIs at the be finalised in early 2007. Due to the application level, including APIs to telephony, concerns around GPL, components such as user interface, device management, security, VisionMobile research 9 application security, and address book. It aims to and demonstrate product conformance to the use existing components where possible, platform specification. modifying them as needed, in cooperation with existing maintainers. Its first specifications are This new group consists of companies with expected in late 2006. Current LiPS members considerable experience in implementing Linux include FranceTelecom/Orange, Telecom Italia for mobile phones. The Open Platform Initiative Mobile, Cellon, Huawei, Purple Labs, Texas (OPI) is in early discussions and has not made Instruments, Trolltech, ZTE, Access/PalmSource, any commitments as to the vendors it plans to FSM Labs, Jaluna, Mizi, MontaVista, Open-Plug, endorse, if any. However, given that all four Longcheer, Spreadtrum, A la Mobile, ARM, manufacturers involved maintain internal Esmertec, McAfee, and Movial Oy. distributions including software products such as Mobilinux, Qtopia Core (previously Qt/ OSDL (Open Source Developer Labs) is an Embedded) and GTK+ we expect the joint industry body working to accelerate the use of distribution to mix and match existing tried & Linux for enterprise computing. Its Mobile Linux tested components. Initiative (MLI) was launched in October 2005 to “identify and fill gaps in the Linux platform and in What is most interesting is that the OPI is led by the ecosystem above and around it”. Members two major mobile operators. We believe of the MLI include BT, Intel, Mizi, MontaVista, Vodafone’s goal is adopt a mature, complete Motorola, PalmSource, BenQ Siemens, Trolltech and supported Linux-based platform for its and Wind River. mobile phones, based on its a long-term strategy of reducing the number of handset software At the marketing level, MLI aims to promote platforms. DoCoMo already has a successful mobile Linux, educate operators about Linux and MOAP software stack and is a shareholder in clarify legal and regulatory issues. At the Access and its ALP platform – as such, the technical level, the MLI is focused on operator’s move can be interpreted as a standardising power management, profiling and software export strategy. We believe that scalability, how codecs are built and deployed, DoCoMo’s end game in the OPI could be to as well as making , WiFi stacks and create the software equivalent of the i-mode telephony stacks readily available. alliance and leverage on Vodafone, Motorola and Samsung to export (and perhaps license) a A third industry effort comes from the Consumer MOAP-like platform to Europe, US/China and Electronics Linux Forum (CELF) which has a Korea, respectively. However, it is not clear subgroup working at defining various mobile whether (or which) MOAP-L components will be phone profiles. part of the technology that will be defined by the Vodafone-DoCoMo foundation. The Vodafone and DoCoMo agenda

Perhaps of greatest interest is a commercial foundation created between Vodafone, NTT DoCoMo, NEC, Panasonic, Motorola and Samsung, announced in June 2006. Named the ‘Open Platform Initiative’, the foundation plans to define and develop a mobile Linux reference distribution, comprising of both open source and closed source (proprietary) components. The foundation intends to publish APIs, architecture and test suites aimed at helping adopters assess VisionMobile research 10

A.3 | Java: A False Start, But Efforts Continue

Java is an AEE technology and a programming voted against the introduction of this JSR, with language. Introduced by Sun Microsystems in the comment, “JSR 258 is an attempt by Nokia 1999, Java 2 Mobile Edition was once the to take control of the UI customisation….we mobile industry’s favourite buzzword, the believe Nokia's 258 is really an attempt to limit application execution environment that would UI customisability rather than to provide it.” standardise application development across all mobile phones. Since then, Java has been On the other side of the Pacific, the Java story widely deployed on handsets, with Sun has been much rosier. DoCoMo’s DoJa, a estimating over 700 million Java-enabled modified version of the Sun-sanctioned Java handsets in the market as of June 2005. Tens of MIDP profile has exposed consistently, richly specifications have been drafted and finalised by implemented functionality to Java developers, major manufacturers and operators at the Java creating a vibrant application ecosystem. The Community Process (JCP), the Sun-led forum to success of DoJa has largely been due to standardise Java. However, the promise of DoCoMo’s advanced DoJa specifications and write-once-run-anywhere software for mobile the control of consistent implementation on handsets has failed to materialise. handsets.

Today Java for phones is best described as a Despite the challenges plaguing Java, there is point solution , suitable for games and light still continued investment in the platform, from content rendering applications. There is no both big and small players. Games developers single vendor or single agreed implementation of such as HandyGames and on-device portal J2ME and related APIs. Lack of application products such as Opera Mini are successfully portability, inconsistently implemented APIs utilising Java across a wide range of handsets. (formally called Java Specification Requests, There is continued investment and industry effort JSRs), and lack of access to important device towards deeper, broader and more consistent features have plagued software developers. support of Java across handsets. Large software houses have to create over 100 The most notable effort is MSA (Mobile different variations of a single Java game to Service Architecture), a Nokia- and Vodafone- address all handset variants. Porting a Java led initiative within the JCP that was launched in application across device models requires late 2004 to consolidate and align JSR significant efforts (typically 15-20% of the specifications. MSA consolidates existing JSRs original development effort, per device). into CDLC and CDC architectures, provides Furthermore, Java implementations lack access additional clarifications to reduce ambiguity and to important device functionality, including the fragmentation, specifies additional requirements user interface, idle screen and ability to perform (e.g. security and hardware) and provides background processing. compliancy testing tools. The first MSA-

The politics at play within the JCP are also to compliant devices are expected by 1Q07. In blame . An indication of the controversies parallel, there are roughly 20 new JSRs being between JCP members appears in the minutes standardized (including MIDP3), covering of the discussions held during the introduction of functionality in the areas of UI customization, JSR 258. In December 2004, Vodafone Group VisionMobile research 11 telephony, hardware sensors and device respectively. In parallel, Sun announced its management. plans to take J2ME open source. This could allow established companies with a strong Java In mid 2006 J2ME is at crossroads . In 1H06 agenda - such as Vodafone and Nokia - to Esmertec and Aplix, two of the main J2ME define and promulgate their own J2ME product vendors, have gone through a radical implementations as de-facto standards. change of management and product strategy,

A.4 | Nokia against Symbian

Nokia’s devaluation strategy towards Symbian is S60’s licensing strategy . With Symbian a commonly known truth in industry circles, but software being highly dependent on Nokia, one that has rarely seen press coverage. several manufacturers, including BenQ Siemens and Panasonic, have painstakingly developed Nokia is Symbian’s biggest licensee, with the S60-based handsets, only to withdraw as a Finnish manufacturer shipping over 70% of licensee later. We argue that Symbian has Symbian-based handsets in the last two years. become a software house for Nokia, albeit an At the same time, Nokia’s S60 platform is not expensive one, given that Nokia does have only a user interface layer and application suite, extensive Symbian OS expertise in-house which but also an application execution environment could in-source OS development. and middleware that contains all essential application and service components. Nokia S60 S60 on Linux ? handsets routinely contain features that then A common hypothesis among industry analysts make it into the Symbian OS, such as the FOTA is that S60 will at some point complement and WiFi middleware which appeared in Symbian with a Linux operating system. There is Symbian OS 9.3, following its introduction in S60 plenty of anecdotal information to support this, rd 3 Edition Feature Pack 1. This is an unusual but it mostly suffices to entertain a hypothesis, relationship between a licensee and its licensor rather than to build a business case. that essentially pushes the value line continually lower down the software stack, in favour of the According to a senior figure close to Symbian, licensee. porting S60 to run on top of Linux would be a very expensive project, costing in the order of As a licensee shipping around 35 million $100 million. However, this figure is comparable handsets a year, Nokia has to pay Symbian in to Nokia’s annual cost of maintaining Symbian the order of $100 million a year. As a OS and is also comparable to the cost of shareholder with 47.9% ownership, Nokia developing a state-of-the-art handset (with recoups most of that value. However, as analyst development of new Japanese handset models firm Nomura points out, with Nokia’s share of costing $85 to $170 million according to the ownership and share of shipments in imbalance, publication Nihon Keizai Shimbun). Nokia has demanded reduced per-unit royalties, most likely against the financial interests of other Nokia has also developed , a Linux shareholders. platform for PDAs which does include a port of Hildon, a defunct Symbian user interface, but We believe that this strategy has not only which lacks the essential telephony stacks. devalued Symbian, but has also marred VisionMobile research 12

Our hypothesis is that Nokia will begin to none”, given that there are 38 Symbian handsets gradually use Linux-based open source in Japan shipped by and Mitsubishi, components as it grows the reach of S60 lower Sharp and Sony Ericsson in volumes of around down the stack. Based on this hypothesis, we one million a month. MOAP-S is a rich UI expect to see high-value software components framework and middleware layer with DoJa port from Maemo onto S60, on top of a Linux support and comes in two flavours of user compatibility layer. interfaces, one shared by Fujitsu and Mitsubishi and one by Sony Ericsson and Sharp handsets. S60 vs MOAP MOAP-S is the evolution of Fujitsu’s in-house UI, S60 is not the most successful user interface and is based currently on Symbian 8.1, with a layer for Symbian to date. MOAP-S (Mobile plan to move to 9.x at the end of 2007. MOAP-S Oriented Applications Platform for Symbian), is a can cater to wildly different user interfaces from little known S60-replacement for Symbian OS – an advanced 3G phone UI to a 3-line B/W LCD based phones that has been co-developed by screen as seen on the Raku Raku 3 handset. DoCoMo, Fujitsu, Mitsubishi and Motorola. DoCoMo invested a total of about 37 billion yen MOAP-L is the Linux-based sister platform for (approx. $300 million) over two years (fiscal DoCoMo’s 3G handsets that includes 2004 and fiscal 2005) in six manufacturers which middleware, the DoJa application execution resulted in the development of MOAP-S and environment and a GTK+ based UI Framework. MOAP-L software layers for the operators’ 3G NEC and Panasonic have shipped at least FOMA handsets. seven handsets based on MOAP-S as of mid 2006, accounting for the majority of worldwide MOAP-S, in the words of a Symbian VP, is “by shipments of Linux-based handsets. far the most successful platform bar

A.5 | Conclusions and Market Trends

Based on the analysis presented here, we also enterprises and mobile operators making a outline five key trends that will shape the mobile choice of platform. software market through 2006-2009. We believe that 2006 marks a turning point in Firstly, software flexibility, rather than openness the history of Linux as a mobile phone platform, will be the critical theme for successful operating not only due to Motorola’s recent commitment, systems. Secondly, as the sale value line moves but the wealth products and support services upwards towards middleware and upper from a growing commercial community. Longer software layers, so the core operating system term, we believe Linux-based platforms will out- technology will commoditise. Thirdly, technology survive many of today’s credible contestants, as verticalisation is gradually taking place, with will Microsoft’s Windows Mobile. vendors merging or partnering to offer out-of- the-box pre-integrated software stacks. In These five trends are further analysed in symmetry, the demand for software platforms is Chapter D. consolidating, with not only manufacturers, but VisionMobile research 13

Making Sense of Operating Systems, UI Frameworks and Application Environments B

The landscape of mobile software today is In this chapter we shed light on the functionality exceedingly complex. Hundreds of products delivered by each product and compare metrics form part of the software stacks shipping in low- of positioning and market penetration for each. end to high-end handsets. The functionality of The product functionality chart shown on the each product spans a number of areas, and is next page shows the type of functionality typically described in the vendor’s own delivered by each software product, based on marketing language; this has resulted in what the conceptual model for handset software that one could call Babel of software products, where we presented in Section A.1. understanding the roles, functionality and lines of partnership or competition across software For each software product, the Customers & products is a complex endeavour. Licensees chart shows the manufacturers who have announced mobile phones based on In exploring the mobile software landscape we selected software products. Finally, the market have selected 16 software products including penetration chart shows a metric of the major operating systems, application effectiveness of the licensing strategy for each environments and user interface frameworks, software product; this can be observed by that we compare and contrast next. These plotting the age of the software product (in years products are A la Mobile platform, Access Linux since launch), against the number of mobile Platform, Adobe Flash Lite, GTK+, MiniGUI, Mizi phones that have been announced to carry that Prizm, MontaVista Mobilinux, Nokia S60, Obigo product. Suite, Openwave MIDAS, Qualcomm BREW, SavaJe, Symbian OS, Trolltech Qtopia, UIQ and Each of the 16 vendors compared here are Windows Mobile. further reviewed in Chapter C. VisionMobile research 14

Product Functionality . Classification of selected software products and the functionality they delivered based on a simplified handset software stack

ALA ALP FL GTK mGUI MIZI MV S60 OBG OPWV BREW SVJE SYMB QTOP UIQ WIN NUCL SKY PURP DAW TAT

Application Suite            

User Interface Framework              

Application Execution Environment             

Middleware                

Kernel and Hardware Drivers        

Key: ALA = A la Mobile Adobe, ALP = Access Linux Platform, FL = Adobe Flash Lite, GTK = GTK+, Mizi = Mizi Prizm, MV = MontaVista Mobilinux, S60 = Nokia S60, OBG = Obigo, OPWV = Openwave MIDAS, BREW = Qualcomm BREW, SVJE = SavaJe OS, SYMB = Symbian OS, QTOP = Trolltech Qtopia, UIQ = UIQ, WIN = Windows Mobile, NUCL = Nucleus, SKY = SKY-MAP, PURP = Purple Labs Linux, DAW = Digital Airways Kaleido, TAT = TAT’s UI Foundation

* full / semi circle denotes full / semi-complete functionality, respectively

Source: VisionMobile Research VisionMobile research 15

Customers & Licensees . Manufacturers who have announced mobile phones based on selected software products.

Arima Siemens BenQ Bird Cellon Compal Eastcom Fujitsu Sense Group Ltd Hitachi HTC Huawei mobile IXI Kyocera Lenovo LG Longcheer Mio Mitac Mitsubishi Motorola NEC Nokia Palm Panasonic &Pantech Curitel Sagem Samsung Sanyo Sharp Ericsson Sony TCL Toshiba Vitelcom Wistron ZTE

A la Mobile

Access Linux Platform

Adobe Flash Lite               

GTK+   

MiniGUI

Mizi Prizm 

MontaVista Mobilinux   

Nokia S60    

Obigo Suite                

Openwave                

Qualcomm BREW                   

SavaJe OS   

Symbian OS            

Trolltech Qtopia    

UIQ    

Windows Mobile       

* Not all customers or licensees are shown. Source: vendor data VisionMobile research 16

Market penetration . Age of software platform vs number of commercial mobile phone models announced carrying the software platform

1000

Fast market Obigo Suite penetration

Adobe Flash Lite Qualcomm BREW Symbian OS (logarithmicscale)

100

MontaVista Nokia S60 Mobilinux Windows Mobile UIQ GTK+ 10 Openwave Phone Suite V7 Trolltech Qtopia (basis for MIDAS) Mizi Prizm Slow market SavaJe OS penetration

Mobilephone models announced 1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 910 Age of platform (years since date of launch)

Source: vendor data VisionMobile research 17

Product Reviews C

In this section we present reviews for 16 major mobile software products, listed below. These products have been selected to include major representatives across operating system, application execution environment and UI framework categories. The page number, key metrics and functionality for each product reviewed are summarised next (for definitions see example below).

key product metrics product functionality areas page launched licensees models base APPS UIF AEE MIDW KRNL A la Mobile 18 2H06 0 0 0      Access Linux Platform 20 1H07 0 0 0      Adobe Flash Lite 22 2003 13 140 77M  GTK+ 24 1997 3 8 ~5M  MiniGUI 26 1998 1 0 0  Mizi Prizm 28 2003 1 3 N/A     MontaVista Mobilinux 30 2003 3 25 25M   Nokia S60 32 2001 4 39 ~60M     Obigo Suite 34 2001 25 400 300M   Openwave MIDAS 36 1H06 N/A 0 0     Qualcomm BREW 38 2001 44 170+ ~150M   SavaJe 40 2004 3 0 0      Symbian OS 42 1998 12 100+ 82M    Trolltech Qtopia 44 2000 40 11 4M     UIQ 46 1999 4 13 N/A     Windows Mobile 48 2002 7 22 ~5M     

The metrics for each product are included in a summary table at the top of each review, as in the example below.

Vendor and product name Functionality areas: APPS = application suite, UIF = user interface framework, AEE = application execution environment, MIDW = middleware, KRNL = kernel

Adobe Flash Lite APPS UIF AEE MIDW KRNL Launched: 2003 Licensees: 13 Models: 140 Base: 77M

Year of product launch # of mobile phone models announced number of total manufacturer licensees installed base (reported or estimated ~) of mobile phones

Each product review is structured into background, positioning, products, technology and strategy subsections. Each review concludes with the author’s viewpoint on that product. VisionMobile research 18

C.1 | A la Mobile A la Mobile APPS UIF AEE MIDW KRNL Launched: 2H06 Licensees: 0 Models: 0 Base: 0

Background processor and in 1Q07 with single processor

A la Mobile is a start-up founded in June 2005, architectures. which came out of stealth mode in June 2006 to Product announce its Convergent Linux platform. Convergent Linux, planned for availability in The company was founded by Pauline Alker, an September 2006, is made up of a complete entrepreneur-in-residence working at Venrock software stack, including Linux kernel 2.6, FOTA Associates, who secured $3.5 million to launch a agent from Red Bend, Qtopia application technology-oriented mobile company. Alker execution environment and user interface layer, recruited senior figures from Sun and Openwave browser, messenger and multimedia framework and grew A la Mobile into a team of 20 based in components from Obigo AB, Flash Lite player San Ramone, California. The company is from Adobe and J2ME virtual machine. The keeping software development in house, but distribution specifically excludes radio stacks, outsourcing business development and sales to which are proprietary to the underlying hardware, regional ‘consulting boutiques’. A la Mobile will although the company is pre-testing its product be looking to close a series B round of funding in with Hellosoft stacks. 2H06, likely to be in the $10 million range. A la Mobile claims to provide a complete set of Positioning tools for building the distribution and configuring

Convergent Linux can best be described as the the platform as well as tools for product testing ‘Red Hat’ of mobile, in other words a complete and QA. for mobile phones. A la Mobile Technology is addressing an important gap in mobile Linux offerings: the productisation of a complete A la Mobile’s technology portfolio is made up of software stack that is stable, integrated, two components, the hardware mobility engine customised, tested, verified and supported, (HME) and the network mobility engine (NME). much like ALP’s proposed positioning. The HME is a low-level porting technology that

Unlike most other Linux vendors, a la Mobile is allows the binary image of a complete operating less about technology and more about a service system to be reused across hardware reference proposition. The company is intending to provide designs. The HME is a set of hardware drivers a complete mobile Linux distribution and offer a (which are normally part of the kernel) that choice of components to customers. The abstract the idiosyncrasies of the underlying Convergent Linux business model emphasises hardware components from the operating on delivering a complete and differentiated system. A la Mobile plans to produce a different software stack for mobile devices, to compete HME for each supported mobile phone with Symbian/S60 and Microsoft. applications processor, with support for ARM9 and ARM 11 architectures initially. Each HME A la Mobile plans to address both feature and version will present the same uniform API to the smart phone segments, initially with dual OS above it. This will enable HME-compliant VisionMobile research 19 binary images to run without modification, particular attention to mobile operators, although recompilation or re-testing on top of any no customer details have yet been announced. supported chipset, as reported by LinuxDevices.com. A la Mobile has two patents Viewpoint pending on the technology and is investigating A la Mobile has, alongside Access Linux legal implications of separating hardware drivers Platform, Purple Labs and Aplix’s BTO product, away from the GPL’d kernel. launched a new breed of solutions bringing productisation to mobile Linux. The Network Mobility Engine (NME) provides a policy-based framework for handover of IP- Aside from competition from similar solutions based services (voice, data and video) between announced in 1H06, A la Mobile will face several network transports (e.g. 2G, 3G and WiFi) challenges. The company is planning to offer without requiring any modification in the network tailored distributions to diverse customers, a infrastructure or the IP applications. It also promising but risky proposition which will require allows for automatic selection of appropriate considerable funding. We believe that apart from network transport when service is acquired or choosing its partners and customers carefully, A lost. la Mobile will have to develop state-of-the-art tools that will allow its engineers and its Strategy customers’ engineers to rapidly customise, A la Mobile is plugging a hole in today’s mobile integrate, test and verify Convergent Linux to Linux software landscape by offering a complete, diverse needs. tested and verified distribution. The software distribution is tailored to the customer, not only We also believe that A la Mobile needs to more in terms of middleware, but also in terms of the effectively communicate its value proposition to user interface. the industry, not only due to lack of industry education on Linux, but also the uniqueness of A la Mobile plans to provide a tailored the company’s positioning. distribution to each customer and is paying

VisionMobile research 20

C.2 | Access Linux Platform Access Linux Platform APPS UIF AEE MIDW KRNL Launched: 1H07 Licensees: 0 Models: 0 Base: 0

Background Development of the ALP software is out of

The Access Linux Platform (ALP) was PalmSource’s California offices, where Access announced in February 2006, as the US also moved. According to internal sources, amalgamation of Palm OS’s execution the environment within ALP office resembles a environment and UI, China MobileSoft’s Linux start-up with roadmaps and development kernel and Access’s application and middleware milestones in flux. suite. Positioning

ALP marks the meeting point of the three very The Access Linux platform is intended to provide different companies. Tokyo-based Access was a complete software stack, encompassing kernel, founded in 1984 and is traded on the Tokyo middleware, Palm- and Linux- based application Stock Exchange with a capitalisation of $3-$4 execution environments, UI framework and billion. Access develops the Netfront browser application suite. The company hopes to begin and middleware suite that the company claims licensing the ALP platform to hardware and has been embedded on 200 million devices. software developers by the end of 2006, and Access outbid several potential acquirers expects to see devices based on it reach including Motorola, to acquire PalmSource in consumers in late 2007. September 2005 paying an 83% premium on its ordinary stock price. As a complete operating system, ALP is competing with Symbian and Windows Mobile. PalmSource was created as an operating To challenge the incumbent players, ALP plans subsidiary of Palm, Inc. during 2001 and to develop new software components at the subsequently spun out of its parent as a kernel and UI framework layers, while leveraging separate business in November 2003. PalmOS from the open source community and existing has been particularly successful as an OS for Access and PalmSource technology. ALP will PDAs in the US, but has suffered from repeat certainly benefit from the existing 400,000 execution blunders and the loss of both registered members of the Palm OS developer committed licensees, Sony and Palm. program and the 25,000 reported application titles. The company launched a new Developer PalmSource acquired China MobileSoft (CMS) Network programme to transition these in February 2005 in an effort to shift its developers and applications to the ALP platform, development focus above the value line. CMS a task that won’t be easy due to lack of handsets products comprise of a Linux kernel (mLinux), a and the need for application porting. complete handset operating system (mFone) and an application suite. CMS products have There are yet no announcements as to the already shipped in more than a million phones, manufacturers that will be releasing ALP-based according to the company, while it counts some handsets, although they are likely to be vendors eleven different phone manufacturers among its already using Access software. customers. VisionMobile research 21

Product build a full Linux distribution. Access’s strategic

Access has published a detailed plan for the priority is deploy ALP on home and converged make-up of the ALP platform. ALP comprises of consumer devices. the full software stack, starting with Linux Kernel Viewpoint 2.6.12 (replaceable by the manufacturer). At the middleware level ALP features a full telephony Access does have an ambitious plan for creating framework and a messaging framework a single product out of three very different supporting SMS, MMS, email and IM, as well as product suites. This is a daunting task – creating a Java virtual machine (a choice between a new operating system is an arduous and risky PalmSource’s IBM-licensed JVM and Access’ project and one that PalmSource failed in their Sun-licensed JVM). An SQLlite database is used last attempt with Cobalt OS. PalmSource’s for storing common user data such as contacts, disappointing track record with execution with an calendar, profiles and filesystem and making outdated OS and limited support for hardware, is them easily accessible to application developers. a concern with ALP. According to an SEC filling by Palm Inc, PalmSource has already missed At the UI framework level, ALP features MAX, an some of the deadlines set out in its agreement adaptation of PalmSource’s Rome technology, with the manufacturer in codeveloping the supporting multitasking, and both keypad and PalmOS operating system. A source close to touch-screen interfaces; MAX is founded on an Palm said summarising the challenges for ALP: optimised version of GTK+. ALP includes a “it’s not enough to have the right ingredients, you MAX-based application suite and the Access have to bake the cake”. Netfront browser. ALP is designed to run legacy PalmOS as well as Java and Linux applications. With ALP, Access is addressing an important need, the development of a complete, Technology production-ready Linux-based software stack. It is yet not known how ALP will allow Access’s plan trades off the limited choice in the customisation of the user interface and whether software stack make-up with the stability and rapid prototyping tools will be provided. Access reliability offered by pre-integrating specific has also made no statements as to the chipsets components. that will be supported. What is known is that ALP will aim to support the existing pool of PalmOS A further challenge for Access would be to applications through the Ghost forward revive the PalmOS community, especially when compatibility engine, although we expect such applications will most likely have to be re-written, applications to have to be modified to run on and engage the Linux community. ALP. Finally, a puzzling question relating to Access is Strategy what is the end-game for DoCoMo (who owns

We believe Access’s strategy is to provide a 11% of Access) since the operator already uses complete software stack based on Linux for the the MOAP layer (see Section A.4). It is therefore Chinese and European markets. Alongside A la likely that ALP will be aimed at markets outside Mobile, ALP is one of the first Linux vendors to Japan.

VisionMobile research 22

C.3 | Adobe Flash Lite Adobe Flash Lite APPS UIF AEE MIDW KRNL Launched: 2003 Licensees: 13 Models: 140 Base: 77M

Flash Lite boasts deployments by operators NTT Background DoCoMo, KDDI and Softbank Mobile (formerly Macromedia (now Adobe) Flash Lite is an Vodafone K.K), and manufacturers Fujitsu, application execution environment and vector Hitachi, Kyocera, LG, Mitsubishi, Motorola, NEC, graphics framework for mobile handset Nokia, Panasonic, Sanyo, Sharp, Samsung, applications. The Flash Lite engine is the mobile BenQ Siemens, Sony Ericsson and Toshiba. version of the Flash player which, in the PC The platform is enjoying success across Japan, world, has become the de facto rich graphic Korea, as well as Europe (through Nokia’s S60 application environment for websites. and S40) and North America through a joint marketing push with Verizon Wireless on BREW DoCoMo, the company which prompted devices. Macromedia to develop a mobile version of

Flash, has been bundling Flash Lite on every i- Flash Lite is licensed to manufacturers on a per- mode handset since the 505i series in early unit royalty basis, which according to several 2003, as well as its MOAP-based 3G handsets. sources ranges from $2 down to $0.5 depending In the last two years, Flash Lite has been on volume. featured on Samsung, Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Windows Mobile and BREW phones. According Adobe boasts a one-million-strong developer to Adobe, as of July 2006, 13 manufacturers base for Flash content which notably includes have shipped more than 77 million devices with not only programmers, but also creative Flash Lite on over 140 device models. designers. Interestingly, this makes Flash Lite more ubiquitous than Symbian. Product Flash Lite 1.1 has been criticised for suffering Positioning from high processing requirements, limited Flash Lite is an application execution programmability and lack of essential APIs. environment for graphically-rich, interactive Flash Lite 2.0, released to manufacturers in late applications such as games and on-device 2005, is based on the Flash 7 profile, and portals. Over time, the platform has been significantly increases the breadth of evolving to a platform not only for third party functionality available and the depth of device applications, but also manufacturer applications; integration. Version 2 upgrades the scripting the Samsung G900 uses Flash Lite to render the support to the richer ActionScript 2, and enables idle screen and dialler applications. local data storage, easier loading of external data and embedded video playback. Flash Lite has been deployed on a range of platforms and number of mobile devices that few The Flash Lite player can be integrated on a other software products can boast. The list mobile device as an engine for third party includes MOAP, Nokia S60, S40, Windows applications, as a graphics framework for Mobile, BREW, GTK+ and MontaVista, as well implementing manufacturer applications such as as further, unannounced platforms. the idle screen and dialler, or as a browser plug- in. DoCoMo for example has chosen to integrate VisionMobile research 23 the player deeply within its handsets so that Flex development and Flash execution Flash Lite contents can be played from the environments. We expect Adobe to announce a browser, idle screen, and in some cases from complete user interface framework by mid 2007, the call make/receive and email send/receive as an evolution of its Flash Lite platform. screens. One of the biggest technical challenges for Technology Adobe is transitioning the software runtime

According to Adobe, Flash Lite is light enough to environment from being primarily aimed at run on most mass-market phones with ARM7 animations to being aimed at applications, class processors, although it is today mostly according to David Lynch, Chief Software available on high-end feature phones and Architect for Adobe, interviewed by . Flash Lite can integrate with the Knowledge@Wharton in July 2006. device to monitor battery life, signal strength, Viewpoint identify the device model, send SMS messages, invoke the browser or initiate a voice call. Macromedia has managed to execute very well However, as in the case of Java integration, it is in deploying Flash Lite across over 70 million essentially down to the manufacturer to choose devices, given that its royalty pricing is how deeply Flash Lite will be integrated, and substantial and competing SVG vendors have which intrinsic device functionality it will have been offering their client for free. access to, which can create subtle platform Flash Lite has began to make headway outside incompatibilities across device models. Japan and Korea with Macromedia’s

Strategy collaboration with Verizon Wireless that will see the platform shipped on Samsung A950, LG Following the acquisition of Macromedia, Adobe VX9800 and the Motorola RAZR v3C. In Europe, has been pursuing a long-term strategy that will Flash Lite has been shipped on several S60 see the PDF and Flash platforms merge into a devices and four S40 devices, further cementing single product and span across desktop and Adobe’s product as a prevalent AEE for third mobile environments. Codenamed Apollo, the party applications and increasingly manufacturer initial incarnation of Adobe’s strategy is a cross- applications. operating system runtime which allows developers to build and deploy rich online and Adobe has ambitions to compete with Microsoft offline applications. Apollo has been announced on a next-generation application execution for desktop environments, where it will be environment for rich Internet applications competing head-to-head with Microsoft’s combining the power and ubiquity of PDF and Windows Presentation Framework. Flash formats. On the mobile arena, Flash Lite has been positioned as a complementary According to internal sources, the mobile version technology to most software platforms, including of Apollo is 2-3 years away from reaching the S60, MOAP, Windows Mobile and BREW, market and will closely follow the roadmap of the however Adobe will need to play its cards Apollo desktop product. Adobe is also known to carefully with software vendors as it develops be working on a full user interface framework Flash to a full UI framework and AEE for codenamed Flip that combines Macromedia’s manufacturer applications. VisionMobile research 24

C.4 | GTK+ GTK+ APPS UIF AEE MIDW KRNL Launched: 1997 Licensees: 3 Models: 8 Base: ~5M

As a Linux-based UI framework, GTK+ Background competes with Trolltech’s Qtopia and Mizi’s GTK+ is a software framework for creating Prizm, with a key point of differentiation being graphical user interfaces, across desktop and GTK’s royalty-free, LGPL licensing model and embedded environments. The GTK+ project multi-vendor support. started life in 1997 as a toolkit for a raster graphics editor called the GNU Image Product

Manipulation Program (GIMP), and has come to GTK+ is a full UI framework comprising of a be known as GIMP ToolKit, abbreviated to GTK+. widget set (e.g. buttons, lists), an event handling mechanism and extends to an accessibility Positioning toolkit and internationalisation framework for GTK+ is a high profile open source project with a rendering complex scripts. large, active development community. GTK+ is royalty free and licensed under LGPL, a lighter GTK+ offers a complete set of widgets, making it version of the GPL license that allows vendors to suitable for projects ranging from small one-off build proprietary applications on top of GTK+; tools (such as GIMP) to complete application only modifications to the GTK+ code itself must suites for mobile handsets. GTK+ lacks a be disclosed rather than application source code. windowing system, or drivers providing the low- level interface to the screen. The latest version Commercially, GTK+ is used as the basis of the of GTK+ 2,0 comprises of more than 600,000 GNOME Linux-based desktop environment, as lines of code, more than double the size of its well as the One Laptop Per Child project and the predecessor, GTK+ 1.2. VMware workstation and server products. Technology There is no single vendor or owner behind GTK+, GTK+ is accessible to developers via a C API while a number of companies have been using and (via bindings) to Python, C#, Java, Perl, GTK+ on embedded projects, including Nokia, Ruby –based applications. GTK+ also features PalmSource, Garmin, OpenedHand, Imendio, an XML API for rapidly creating custom screen KernelConcepts, BlueMug and Movial. layouts and describing interactions, although that feature has not yet been productised in a It is worth noting that GTK+ has been integrated handset environment. GNOME’s recent work on within Nokia’s Maemo platform (powering the adding JavaScript programmability to GTK+ Nokia 770 Internet Tablet) and is featured within should spawn the creation of rapid UI the Access Linux Platform software stack. It is customisation tools based on GTK+, similar to understood that NEC and Panasonic devices Digital Airways’ Kaleido. designed for DoCoMo’s FOMA 3G network also feature a port of GTK+ for mobile handsets. This Development of GTK+ based software is alone implies that GTK+ UI framework has been supported by open source tools such as Glade. featured on millions of Linux-based handsets to date. Porting GTK+ to embedded handsets is a relatively low-resource effort according to Jeff VisionMobile research 25

Waugh, Director of the GNOME foundation. handset manufacturers due to the product’s Porting involves removing unnecessary widgets, completeness as a UI framework, its flexibility as adapting widget rendering, adding font an open source project, its royalty-free use and management and a window manager, according its permissive LGPL licensing. to Blue Mug, an embedded software company who ported GTK+ to PDA hardware in 5 Its use in NEC and Panasonic handsets makes engineer-months. GTK+ one of the most prominent software stacks in terms of handset shipments. Viewpoint

The popularity of GTK+ has been steadily growing amongst mobile software vendors and

VisionMobile research 26

MiniGUI APPS UIF AEE MDW KRNL C.5 | MiniGUI Launched: 1998 Licensees: 1 Models: 0 Base: 0

Product Background According to Feynman Software, MiniGUI is MiniGUI is a user interface framework optimised optimized for applications with tight resource and for embedded devices. MiniGUI started life in real-time performance constraints. It provides December 1998, through the work of software multi-windowing and messaging mechanisms developer Wei Yongming. In 2002, the core and supports enhanced graphics APIs. The developers of MiniGUI founded Beijing-based product further supports skins that open the Feynman Software to market and commercialise platform to both provider-centric customisation MiniGUI. The UI framework is offered today in and user-centric personalisation. both free (GPL licensed) and commercial (non-

GPL) forms. MiniGUI provides a comprehensive suite of widgets and supports popular image file types, Positioning Windows resource files, multiple character sets, MiniGUI aims to provide a compact, fast, stable, font types, and keyboard layouts. The product lightweight, and cross-operating system UI also supports multiple keyboard layouts, and support system, which is especially fit for real- Simplified Chinese input method. time embedded systems. Technology The MiniGUI UI framework can be used on not MiniGUI boasts support for an impressive array only mainstream mobile phones and WiFi of core operating systems including phones, but also portable media players, set-top Linux/uClinux, eCos, VxWorks, pSOS, ThreadX, boxes and industrial meters. The product Nucleus, and recently ENEA’s OSE. Feynman includes support for Nucleus, and ENEA’s OSE Software claims that the product has been and Linux, some of the most popular operating tested on hardware platforms that include Intel systems for mainstream mobile handsets. As a , ARM (ARM7/ARM9/StrongARM/xScale), UI framework, MiniGUI competes with GTK+ and PowerPC, MIPS, and M68k Trolltech’s Qtopia. (DragonBall/ColdFire). The company offers an SDK on the Win32 (PC) platform that facilitates MiniGUI is supported on DaTang Mobile’s TD- the development and debugging of embedded SCDMA 3G hardware reference design, MiniGUI-based software. although there are no known shipments of MiniGUI-based handsets. According to Feynman Feynman Software claims that MiniGUI is Software, manufacturer Huawei has also capable of running on a low-end system with 30 employed MiniGUI as the UI platform for an MHz CPU and 4MB RAM, with superior IPTV set-top box product. performance to most UI frameworks.

Feynman develops, markets and supports Strategy MiniGUI, while offering additional software MiniGUI is one of the most portable UI including an HTML browser, embedded GIS frameworks across operating systems and software and an application suite for embedded supports the most popular OSs in use on mobile products. VisionMobile research 27 handsets today. In August 2006 Feynman licensing model of Feynman Software, its parent Software announced MiniGUI support for company, enables a variety of business uses, ENEA’s OSE real-time operating system (RTOS), from full-GPL and academic use to own- and which is featured on Sony Ericsson 3G handsets. commercial- use. The product’s traction with handset manufacturers is limited to China, Viewpoint although the port to ENEA’s OSE operating MiniGUI enjoys portability across a wide range system is likely to open doors towards Sony of embedded platforms and RTOSs. The dual Ericsson and other European manufacturers.

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C.6 | Mizi Prizm Mizi Prizm APPS UIF AEE MIDW KRNL Launched: 2003 Licensees: 1 Models: 3 Base: N/A

Linux phone development, close collaboration Background with top OEMs and the Korean know-how in Founded in 1997, Mizi Research is a Korean handsets for foreign markets. company which today develops embedded Linux platforms for a variety of devices including Product mobile phones, vehicle telematics systems, and Prizm is a family of mobile application platforms videophones. based on Linux designed to power a wide variety of devices such as mobile phones, personal Mizi is a company of 55 people based in Seoul, media players, vehicle telematics systems and Korea. The company maintains a network of videophones. First released in 2003, Prizm technical and sales partners in UK, China and Mobile is the mobile application platform Japan. Mizi, a privately held company, saw $5 (currently in version 2.5) and comprises of an million in 2005 revenues, which they expect to application execution environment, graphics rise to $6 million in 2006. engine and application suite.

Prizm is a suite of Linux-based software stacks Prizm Mobile telephony components support for mobile phones and converged devices which CDMA, GSM/GPRS while WCDMA and HSDPA the company first launched in 2001. are in the process of implementation. Prizm used to rely on Trolltech’s Qt 2.3.2 graphics Positioning engine, but has in the last two years replaced Prizm is a software stack combining an this with in-house software which now supports application execution environment, UI framework features such floating objects, transparencies, and application suite. Prizm Mobile, the phone vector widgets and fonts, as well as optionally version of the product targets primarily handset hosting Adobe’s Flash 6 or Flash Lite engines. manufacturers and secondly mobile operators. The Prizm UI enables both key-based and Mizi regards phone software vendors such as touch-screen input methods. The built-in Kingsoft and Emtrace as third type of customer. application manager features multitasking, while the application suite includes file and media Prizm Mobile has shipped in three Samsung browsers and a full set of PIM apps. Mizi devices; CDMA handsets SCH-i519 and SCH- partners with independent software vendors for i819 and GSM handset SGH-i858 for the the WAP browser, office tools, voice recognition Chinese market. Mizi regards Samsung as “a and games applications. valuable and important client”, while the company has been recently engaged on two Prizm offers a range of operator-targeted customised device projects, one in Asia and one customisation features, including idle-screen in Europe. Besides mobile phones, Mizi software widgets, fonts, icons and menu architecture. In has powered a videophone sold by Telecom addition to customising themes, users can Italia in 2004. personalise the idle-screen plug-ins. The Prizm development tools allow scripting of the graphics Mizi claims Prizm benefits from the company’s technology leadership, in-depth know-how in VisionMobile research 29 engine through not only C/C++, but also Python, Strategy which simplifies development and maintenance. Mizi plans to work closer with operators on customised handsets, a new business ground The company also develops and distributes Mizi for the company. Prizm 3.0, due by end 2006, Linux, a software kernel for mobile phones. Mizi plans to introduce advanced user interface Linux includes optimisations to the open source paradigms such as personalisable widget plug- Linux kernel such as dynamic power ins on the handset idle screen; the widgets can management support through CPU scaling, retrieve and display information from the internet power management support and NAND/NOR such as weather, appointments and stocks while flash filesystem support. Prizm has been interacting with phone events such as incoming optimised for Mizi Linux, but can also be messages and calls. The next version of Prizm deployed on top of embedded RTOSs. will also include optimisations in software performance and responsiveness to user input. Technology

The Mizi Linux stack includes a 2.4-series kernel, Viewpoint along with features back-ported from the 2.6- Mizi is the first Linux software vendor to series kernel. Mizi Linux has been ported on productise a complete distribution for mobile Intel application processors as well as Samsung phones, as far back as 2003. Mizi has shipped S3C2410, 24A0 and 2440 processors. on a relatively small number of handset models Communications processors supported are compared to Qt/Embedded and GTK+. The Qualcomm’s MSM and TI chipsets while company is likely to see competition from new Renesas chipset support is in the process of entrants such as Purple Labs and the Access integration. Through its close working Linux Platform who announced complete mobile relationship with Samsung, Mizi has released a Linux distributions in 1H06. However, given the Linux board support package (BSP) and GPL advanced technology environment in Korea and source code for Samsung's S3C2410X the company’s long-term relationship with processor. Samsung, Prizm will increasingly present a credible competitor to Linux-based software Mizi claims that Prizm runs comfortably on stacks, not only in its native market, but also ARM9 class processors clocked at 200MHz. The China and Europe. UI framework and application suites have been optimised for QVGA size, while VGA support is also in development.

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C.7 | MontaVista Mobilinux MontaVista Mobilinux APPS UIF AEE MIDW KRNL Launched: 2003 Licensees: 3 Models: 25 Base: 25M

expectations of Linux phone shipments. The Background company has greatly benefited from the use of MontaVista was founded in 1999 by James F. MontaVista’s Linux on Motorola handsets as well Ready, an embedded pioneer whose previous as NEC and Panasonic handsets; we company, Ready Systems, created VRTX, the understand that the MOAP-L software stack co- first commercially viable real-time operating developed between DoCoMo, NEC and system. In June 2006 Thomas Kelly succeeded Panasonic sits on top of Montavista’s Linux. Ready as president, CEO and chairman, while the outgoing CEO Ready remains with Contrary to industry speculations, MontaVista’s MontaVista as a CTO and member of the board. revenue model has not been based on per-unit royalties, but rather on sales of developer seat MontaVista employs more than 190 people licenses, professional services and support worldwide with subsidiaries in Japan, UK, contracts. According to Paxton Cooper, Director France, Germany, Sweden, Hong Kong, of Product Marketing at MontaVista, the Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan and company did consider introducing per-unit development centres in Santa Clara, Tempe, royalties in 2005, but eventually decided against Dallas, and Tokyo. using this model.

A privately held company, MontaVista has raised Mobilinux’s value proposition is the more than $75 million in several funding rounds. productisation of Linux software and optimisation Investors include DoCoMo (with a $3M equity for mobile phone environments, which caters to stake), Siemens Venture Capital, Samsung manufacturer requirements for a complete, Ventures America, Infineon Ventures, China stable, reliable and supported, yet royalty-free Development Industrial Bank, IBM core operating system. Microelectronics, Intel Capital, Panasonic (Matsushita), Sony, Toshiba America, Ericsson, Product and Yamaha Corporation, as well as venture The company refers to Mobilinux as "the first capital firms Alloy Ventures, RRE Ventures, US optimized OS for mobile and wireless devices Venture Partners, and WR Hambrecht. that can scale from smartphones to feature- phones". Mobilinux is based on a 2.6 kernel with Positioning around 500 patches (40% of which are MontaVista claims to be a market leader in MontaVista features and enhancements) that mobile Linux operating systems, having powered introduce power management improvements, more than 25 handset models to date, including reduced footprint, faster system boot and hard- Motorola A728, A760, A768, A780, A1200, real time capabilities among others. Mobilinux E680i, E680, E895, A910, Rokr E2, NEC does not include radio stacks, which are sourced N901iC, N700i, N900il, N902i, N902iX, or developed by the manufacturer. The core OS Panasonic P700i, P901i and P902i. MontaVista is integrated with third party software such as reports that its software has shipped in 25 million Openwave’s browser, Trolltech Qtopia Core, handsets by mid 2006, a pleasantly surprising figure compared to Gartner and Yankee analyst VisionMobile research 31

GTK+ and Red Bend to complement the top- Mobilinux 4.0 claims to combine hard real time half of the software stack. performance, advanced power management, fast start-up times and small footprint. According All MontaVista Mobilinux contributions to the to MontaVista, a typical Mobilinux phone is able kernel (with the exception of power management to place calls within 10 seconds from power on, components) are fed back to the open source with the kernel boot time reduced to under 0.5s. community, according to Paxton Cooper. The company claims that the advanced real time technology in Mobilinux can enable single core MontaVista chose to give Mobilinux a ‘4.0’ designs to handle both baseband and version number in its initial release announced in application processing. April 2005, due to the product's origins in

MontaVista's Linux Consumer Electronics Strategy Edition 3.1. The company’s other products are MontaVista continues building its Mobilinux the Consumer Electronics Edition, aimed at Open Framework initiative, a partner ecosystem battery-powered devices, Carrier Grade Linux, of pre-integrated third-party software aimed at telecom, and Professional Edition, a components. The current participants to the general-purpose product for embedded devices. Open Framework are Certicom, Jataayu, Red Bend, EmbWiSe, Beep Science, SavaJe and DevRocket is MontaVista’s Eclipse-based Sun.. As part of the initiative, the company development and debug environment. strategy is to recruit best-of-breed mobile DevRocket includes a platform image wizard middleware vendors and facilitate their porting and important features such as memory leak efforts to Mobilinux.. detection, XIP application debug and execution tracing. Viewpoint

Technology MontaVista has been crucial in solving many critical kernel and legal issues, with chipset Mobilinux’s software stack extends from vendors such as Texas Instruments, Intel, and hardware drivers and kernel modifications to a Freescale now offering board support packages thin layer of middleware components. The stack with optimised Linux kernels containing does not include an application execution MontaVista features. MontaVista has been environment, a user interface framework or extremely successful in penetrating the Linux application suite. The Mobilinux platform has mobile phone market, having been widely used been ported to ARM9 and ARM11 -based by Motorola, NEC and Panasonic the current application processors from Intel, Freescale, market leaders. The company is expected to Texas Instruments and Samsung. face competition from the entrance of Wind Mobilinux 4.0 includes drivers for camera, frame River and must continue to innovate ahead of buffer, IrDA, keypad, removable storage, touch the open source community and manufacturer screen, USB, WiFi, support for XIP, TCP/IP efforts in Linux productisation in order to sustain stacks and IPSec. A thin layer of middleware on its impressive track record in phone shipments. top of the kernel features the graphics engine, networking applications and system utilities.

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C.8 | Nokia S60 Nokia S60 APPS UIF AEE MIDW KRNL Launched: 2001 Licensees: 4 Models: 39 Base: ~60M

Nokia accounts for the vast majority of S60- Background based handsets sold to date. We believe that Announced in 2001, S60 is a software stack this setback in Nokia’s licensing strategy has developed and licensed by Nokia’s Technology risen due to the challenges in integrating the Platforms division to manufacturers. S60 Symbian operating system, and the risks contains a user interface layer, application suite associated with manufacturers sourcing a key and middleware engines and has cumulatively software asset from a potent competitor. shipped on 50 million devices by February 2006 according to Nokia. S60 runs on top of Symbian Product

OS with S60 devices accounting for over two S60 is a software platform containing all stack thirds of worldwide Symbian-based device components above the core OS. Firstly, S60 shipments. includes a user interface framework that can be superficially customised by operators and Today, S60 is licensed to Nokia, Samsung, manufacturers. Secondly, S60 contains an Lenovo and LG. There are 39 S60-based device application suite including voice and video models which have launched as of August 2006, telephony, messaging, contacts, calendar, seven of which are non-Nokia, according to the media gallery, RealPlayer, music player, manufacturer’s website. Panasonic and BenQ camcorder and browser applications. Thirdly, the Siemens are no longer licensing the S60 product contains a number of application platform. execution environments, programmable via C++, J2ME, Flash Lite and Python. Finally, S60 Positioning includes key middleware engines such as SMS, Nokia is currently the undisputed leader of the MMS, email transports, SyncML, advanced mobile device market, with a market share clear device management including FOTA, DRM, from the shadow of any single competing Bluetooth and WiFi support. Per-unit royalty fees manufacturer. Nokia S60 devices account for for S60 run at $2-$3 according to Nomura roughly one in eight devices shipped by the estimates. manufacturer. Canalys estimates that Nokia shipped over 9 million Symbian-based smart The latest version, S60 3 rd Edition Feature Pack phones during 2Q06, more than 95% of which 1 runs on top of Symbian 9.2. Due to the were S60 models. Symbian OS platform changes and several new S60 features, applications written for previous Unlike its S40 platform, S60 is not only designed version of S60 require significant changes to for Nokia devices, but also licensed to adapt to S60 3 rd Edition. competing manufacturers. We believe Nokia’s

S60 licensing strategy has been based on two Nokia works with so-called S60 Boutiques such pillars: firstly, extending a UI and service as Electrobit and Teleca that can manage S60 platform to handsets beyond Nokia’s own and phone projects on behalf of the licensee, secondly, influencing the roadmap of competing including design, adaptation, integration, testing manufacturers. and maintenance. VisionMobile research 33

Technology Vodafone, Nokia will be adapting S60 to the

S60 offers a broad but shallow range of operator’s requirements before passing on to customisation possibilities for manufacturers and licensees, resulting in cost and time-to-market operators. Aside from bitmaps, sounds, themes, savings. Customisation of the S60 user interface fonts and hard keys, S60 includes a has been continually enhancing, with the customisable Operator Menu, Active Idle, platform gradually featuring an XML-based UI embedded download links in applications, and customisation framework over the next two branded graphical softkey. years, aiming to offer in-depth rapid UI prototyping. Operator Menu is a set of XHTML pages can be are persistently cached on the device. The Since 2005, Nokia has also been working closer feature can be accessed from a customised with the open source community. According to softkey from the idle screen or from a opensource.nokia.com, there are 15 software customised logo within the application menu. components which Nokia has opened to the Active Idle is a dynamic idle-screen community, including Maemo (the Linux-based implementation that allows shortcuts to be PDA platform), Python for S60, S60’s browser defined for most commonly used applications and Internet Radio for S60, as of July 2006. while providing direct access to personal data Viewpoint and a news ticker technology. S60 continues to be a useful testing ground for S60 offers a wealth of application development Nokia for software features and components, options, in the form of C++, J2ME, Python and before migrating to S40, as is the case with Flash Lite. Nokia also provides Carbide, an Flash Lite. The S60 licensing strategy is Eclipse-based C++ development environment, questionable given that the number of models based on the acquired Metrowerks’s and shipments of Nokia S60 handsets literally Codewarrior technology. dwarf those from S60 licensees, while Panasonic and BenQ Siemens are no longer The S60 user interface supports 176x208, licensing the platform. We therefore see limited 240x320 and 352x416 resolutions, with the financial potential for Nokia’s S60 licensing ability to quickly switch the screen from portrait strategy, under current market conditions. to landscape mode.

Strategy

With more operators customising S60 than manufacturers, Nokia is continually improving the appeal of its platform to operators. Following a February 2006 joint announcement with

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C.9 | Obigo Suite Obigo Suite APPS UIF AEE MIDW KRNL Launched: 2001 Licensees: 25 Models: 400 Base: 300M

Background user interface widgets) and an application suite including Imager, Messenger, Content Manager Based in Lund, Sweden, Obigo AB is a wholly and Media Player applications, IMPS client and owned subsidiary of Teleca. Obigo was created email client. Obigo’s offering includes an early- as a standalone business unit in February 2003 stage application execution environment with a and today employs nearly 300 people (almost scripting environment with access to key one tenth the size of Teleca). Teleca is headed handset APIs – this is the subject of further by René Svendsen-Tune (ex Nokia) and is commercial announcements expected within traded in the Stockholm stock market. 2006.

Obigo delivers a software platform for feature The Obigo suite was launched in 2001 and phones, at the centre of which is a browser targets low-end to high-end feature phones. The component. According to the company, Obigo majority of Obigo’s software portfolio has been has 25 mobile phone brands as direct customers, developed in-house. Q05a, the latest version of including Arima, ASUS, TCL Alcatel, BenQ Obigo suite launched in December 2005, adds Siemens, Bird, Cellon, DBTel, Eastcom, Huawei, Java support, push email, H.264 (Mobile TV) IXI mobile, Lenovo, LG, Panasonic, codecs and SVG 1.2 Tiny support. Pantech&Curitel, Samsung, Siemens VDO, SonyEricsson, Toshiba and Vitelcom. Obigo’s product portfolio includes a suite of tools for development, debugging and testing of Obigo Positioning applications. The toolset allows manufacturers to Obigo’s suite comprises of middleware customise native Obigo applications and test components and applications including a them in an emulated environment. browser, messaging and media applications. Obigo makes source code for its suite available, The Obigo suite is targeted at top-6 OEMs, although for some regions such as China the although Obigo does cater to operators by vendor prefers to issue manufacturers with customising software to operator requirements binaries. before shipping. According to the company, Obigo software has shipped on more than 400 In 1Q06, Teleca announced an agreement with handset models and more than 300 million Trolltech to jointly develop a reference software mobile phones as of July 2006. solution, based on Obigo and Qtopia and deliver customisation services related to the solution. Obigo’s revenue model comprises of an upfront license fee, an annual support fee and a per- Technology device royalty with an option to buy out. Obigo’s suite has been ported on reference designs from EMP, Qualcomm, Mediatek, Intel, Product TI and Freescale, as well as open platforms In addition to the browser, Obigo delivers Windows Mobile, Symbian, Linux (including middleware components (DRM and security, and Qtopia) and the Nucleus kernel. VisionMobile research 35

Portability of the Obigo product suite is made screen. With the new version, Obigo suite is possible by basing all components on a software expected to complete even closer with layer called the Obigo Core. This layer is Openwave MIDAS, although its manufacturer- responsible for access to the operating system centric positioning and its focus on an and device resources, communication and user application suite are strong differentiating factors. interface widgets. The Core also handles the interactions between the Obigo components and Viewpoint includes settings provisioning, and cell Obigo’s strength lies not only in its rich broadcast support. application suite for mass-market handsets, but also its organisational integration with Teleca Strategy handset software and services group. As such, Obigo plans to release a product update in 4Q06, Obigo is well positioned to deliver a complete to support a greater breadth of reference top-half software stack, and combined with designs. The update will also introduce Teleca’s in-house handset design group, important new functionality such as the ability to develop complete handset products. customise the user interface, including the idle-

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C.10 | Openwave MIDAS Openwave MIDAS APPS UIF AEE MDW KRNL Launched: 1H06 Licensees: N/A Models: 0 Base: 0

market handsets. In parallel, Openwave is Background developing an application suite including idle- Openwave was founded in November 2000 as a screen, service advertisement client (PushCast), result of the merger of Phone.com and a music download and playback client Software.com. Headquartered in Redwood City, (Musiwave), a media store-front, a mobile California, Openwave employs 1,300 people blogging and a photo-sharing client. This marks across 26 countries. The company stock is a shift in the Openwave positioning, from serving traded on NASDAQ. manufacturers with a browser component, to serving operators with applications and a Openwave is the leading handset browser development environment to increase data vendor with over 50% market share, and service revenue. For manufacturers, MIDAS browser shipments on one billion handsets by promises to deliver a consistently customisable end 2005, according to the company. The look & feel across handsets and, essentially, vendor is currently shipping browser software on decouple the application development lifecycle handsets from BenQ Siemens, Sanyo, Sharp, from the device development lifecycle. Sagem, Motorola, LG, and TCL Alcatel.

According to Openwave’s website, 288 mobile Announced in April 2006, MIDAS is Openwave’s phones have been publically announced by application execution environment enabling the operator and manufacturer licensees, as of June development and deployment of operator- 2006. Of these, only five handsets carry customised applications on mass-market Openwave’s Phone Suite V7, which is a pre- handsets. MIDAS (Mobile Integrated Dynamic requisite for the deployment of MIDAS. Application System) builds on top of the company’s popular Phone Suite V7 which was Product announced in February 2003. MIDAS is the MIDAS consists of a content presentation engine, result of a long-term strategy for Openwave that an application manager and an ECMA-script includes the acquisition of Nombas’ scripting interpreter for the application logic. MIDAS has technology in 2004 and Musiwave’s client-server access to extended device functionality and technology in 2005. storage, enabling applications to offer next- generation idle-screens and appealing media Shipments of MIDAS on feature-phone handsets store-fronts. are not expected before 2007. Openwave is trialing a ‘adaptive’ messaging client with O2 – Openwave has been shipping a large number of the client, supporting IP messaging, runs on top variations of its Phone Suite, each one with of MIDAS and is being trialled by O2 staff on subtly different capabilities. In the past this Windows Mobile handsets. presented manufacturers with thorny integration issues, since each Phone Suite framework Positioning requires deep integration with the operating MIDAS is positioned as an application execution system and therefore long development times. environment on top of which operators can As the overlying browser was dependent on the easily develop and deploy applications on mass- VisionMobile research 37 version on the Phone Suite installed on the Strategy handset, upgrading the browser meant a Openwave claims to be trialing MIDAS with one prohibitively long time-to-market. This design top-3 OEM and one top-10 OEM who are practice hindered a major European operator planning to deploy the platform on commercial from launching a branded version of the handsets by 1Q07. According to the company, Openwave browser three years ago. MIDAS will also ship on Symbian phones by the end of the year. Openwave is also developing Since 2002, Openwave has designed and improved user interfaces for the company’s deployed Phone Suite V7 as a C++ forward browser and messaging products based on porting layer so that it can be easily upgraded MIDAS advanced rendering and interactivity with a MIDAS framework, in what can be likened features. The company is also planning to build to a Trojan Horse strategy. The latest versions of user profiling, recommendation, and advertising the Phone Suite bundle a version of MIDAS that features into a MIDAS-based client-server can be activated depending on the commercial framework, based on technology acquired from arrangement. The integration of MIDAS on Musiwave. handsets presents a relatively small effort for manufacturers who have already deployed v7. Recognising that MIDAS is still some time away from mass-market deployments, Openwave is In August 2006, Openwave announced a joint working in the interim on MIDAS-look-alike agreement with Trolltech to port Openwave’s applications through browser enhancements and MIDAS and browser components on Qtopia Java applications. Phone Edition Series 4.

Viewpoint Technology Openwave is an entrenched, forward-looking MIDAS is designed to support a variety of and ambitious device software vendor. The commercial platforms; the content presentation company is moving from being a supplier of engine can use different plug-ins, such as SVG- handset components for manufacturers, to what Tiny, Flash Lite or the browser engine (the same we believe is a long-term service play for engine as in version 7.2 of the mobile browser). developing and deployment operator The content layout language is proprietary and is applications. However, Openwave’s Phone Suite designed to achieve pixel-exact positioning. The v7, a pre-requisite for MIDAS, has seen only a application environment includes an handful of deployments as of mid 2006, while asynchronous data push and a DRM component. the company’s stock price dropped to a third of ECMA-Script extensions are used to allow the its value between April and July 2006. applications to access important device functionality such as calendar, camera, Amidst shareholding and sales challenges, messaging client, photo album, call handling, Openwave will have to carefully position MIDAS and location engines. towards its manufacturer customers as a means of adding value to their handset proposition, The application environment has similar while allaying customer fears that the technology hardware requirements to the v7 framework, might cede service control to operators. with a modest increase of ROM storage requirements. VisionMobile research 38

Qualcomm BREW APPS UIF AEE MDW KRNL C.11 | Qualcomm BREW Launched: 2001 Licensees: 44 Models: 170+ Base: ~150M

capable handsets announced by 44 Background manufacturers, including Compal, Huawei, BREW is an application execution environment Kyocera, LGE, Motorola, Nokia, Panasonic, (AEE), a product of Qualcomm Internet Services Pantech&Curitel, Samsung, Sanyo, Sharp, Sony (QIS), a division of Qualcomm. The company Ericsson, TCL, Toshiba, Vitelcom and ZTE. that started as seven people in 1985 is now a $7B a year wireless heavyweight. Qualcomm is Product headquartered in San Diego and employs First launched in 2001, BREW is essentially a around 9,000 people with offices in 26 platform for buying, downloading, installing and countries.In the fiscal quarter ended June 2006, running applications. BREW has not only been Qualcomm announced revenues of $1.95 billion, the first solution in the market to fully address up 44% year on year. Qualcomm has filed and end-to-end application creation and consumption, been granted over 4,500 United States patents, but the most successful, by managing both ends with its licensing business accounting for 33% of of the value chain, i.e. the hardware make-up revenues. Qualcomm’s per-handset royalties are and the developer ecosystem. running at over 5% of handset sales according to the Korean AFP news source. Qualcomm’s uiOne is an optional UI customisation component that can be likened to Positioning an on-device portal, in that it provides an idle- Qualcomm offers by far the most complete, screen replacement framework with store-front vertically integrated solution in the wireless capabilities. uiOne is based on Trigenix market. It encompasses a chipset business technology, following the company’s acquisition shipping over 150 million chipsets a year, in October 2004. uiOne contains mShop, an thousands of patents to technology, an operating enhancement to the BREW Application Manager system, the BREW application execution store-front , which significantly enriches the environment, a UI customisation platform, a usability of the product with idle-screen content delivery platform, a vibrant developer replacement and skinning capabilities. uiOne ecosystem and a business model connecting exploits close integration with the BREW developers to operators. Qualcomm’s developer execution environment, although according to ecosystem is particularly strong with the Qualcomm, it’s not dependent on the presence company’s last conference attended by over of an MSM chipset. 2,500 developers, and reportedly over $700M paid to developers and publishers of BREW Technology applications to date. The latest version of the BREW execution environment is 4.0. BREW development is BREW is designed to run on a wide range of based on the C++ language, although BREW handsets from voice-centric phones to has support for Java, Flash Lite, SVG and XML smartphones and PDAs, but is almost entirely (through uiOne), lowering the barrier to shipping on CDMA handsets. As of August developing BREW-based applications. 2006, Qualcomm reports over 170 BREW- VisionMobile research 39

BREW has been designed to be able to run on quickly, it is also accused of charging high different classes of handsets, from voice phones royalty rates and encouraging vendor lock-ins. to feature phones. BREW sits on top of a software stack called AMSS (Advanced Mobile In July 2006 Qualcomm announced a Subscriber Software), the evolution of DMSS partnership with KDDI that will see BREW (Dual-Mode Subscriber Software) that is bundled extend from an execution environment for third with Qualcomm MSM (mobile station modem) party applications, to one for creating a chipsets. The kernel shipping with the MSM manufacturer application suite and middleware chipsets is called REX. BREW is known to run components. In essence the announcement on top of TTPCom stacks and Texas signifies the creation of a common BREW-based Instruments chipsets, although some analysts platform managed by Qualcomm and KDDI and claim that BREW’s performance is sub-par when deployed uniformly on Toshiba and Sanyo run on top of non-Qualcomm chipsets. handsets, similar to DoCoMo’s MOAP software layer. The common platform is intended to The BREW system is also protective of forward reduce the cost of creating new handset models compatibility by not allowing applications to by more than two-thirds and reducing the time- access the underlying OS functionality, a policy to-market for new handsets to less than a year. that we expect is enforced with manufacturer implementations of BREW, contrary to the In May 2006, Qualcomm announced a practices of the Palm OS. QIS offers BREW collaboration with Microsoft that will enable the environment binaries rather than source code to porting of the Windows Mobile operating system the manufacturers, apart from very few to Qualcomm MSM chipsets. The Microsoft OS components. will be ported on Qualcomm’s 7XXX-series Convergence chipset with dual ARM core uiOne offers extensive customisation of the idle architecture. Smartphones leveraging MSM screen, main menu and handset theming with solutions with Windows Mobile are expected to over the air updates enabled by the uiOne be available in 2007. Delivery System. Viewpoint

Strategy Given the company’s scale, financial muscle and Qualcomm’s strategy is to tightly couple the R&D investments, Qualcomm will continue to components of its vertical solution, so as the command the CDMA markets in America and developer ecosystem will drive demand for APAC across both operators and manufacturers. CDMA/WCDMA and MDM chipsets and visa- BREW is essentially Qualcomm’s Trojan Horse versa. The close coupling of BREW with MSM (given that QIS is part of the Wireless & Internet chipsets further encourages operators to specify division, which contributes only 9% of company MSM chipsets. revenues) that has been successfully positioned to grow the chipset and licensing business. We BREW’s end-to-end strategy has made life believe that Qualcomm’s partnership with easier for operators and developers, and has Microsoft is part of a longer-term plan to move also made it easy for users to browse, buy, its chipset and licensing business into Europe, install and run the applications. However, following previous unsuccessful attempts with Qualcomm is BREW’s biggest advantage and its BREW. biggest drawback at the same time. While Qualcomm’s financial muscle and control of the end-to-end solution enables operators, manufacturers and developers to go to market VisionMobile research 40

C.12 | SavaJe OS SavaJe OS APPS UIF AEE MIDW KRNL Launched: 2004 Licensees: 3 Models: 0 Base: 0

According to the OS vendor, LG is now working Background on 3G phone with SavaJe which will be unveiled SavaJe started life as a spin off from Lucent in in 2007. 2000. The company mission: to deliver a complete mobile operating system written in The first SavaJe-powered handset, the Jasper Java CDC and CDLC where applications could S20 was developed by Group Sense Ltd (GSL), run at native speed. a Hong-Kong based ODM, and released to developers at Sun’s JavaOne in June 2006 as a The company has raised nearly $80 million to development platform. The handset sold for date from operators Vodafone, T-Mobile and $199 with subsidy from Sun and SavaJe. Orange as well as Investcorp’s Technology Ventures Fund II, VantagePoint Venture GSL plans to launch the first SavaJe-powered Partners, Ridgewood Capital and RRE Ventures. handsets in Hong Kong and six other countries However the company is yet to see revenues in Asia in 3Q06 with further plans for 3G coming in, with no SavaJe-based mobile phones handsets in 2007. SavaJe has also signed up shipped in commercial quantities as of August Chinese manufacturer Longcheer as a licensee. 2006. Product

In late 2005, the company went through a SavaJe has developed a complete operating complete management overhaul with Gregory system, including drivers, kernel, middleware, Koss at the helm who has shifted the company application execution environment, user focus away from operators, and onto ODMs and interface framework and application suite. OEMs. SavaJe has also hired high-profile mobile SavaJe refers to the product as a ‘Java OS’, product designers such as Soudy Khan who given that it is a full software stack written in wrote the original Rome user interface for Java based on Sun’s CDC profile, which is richer PalmSource. than the traditional CDLC.

Positioning Within the platform, SavaJe has integrated third SavaJe promotes itself as a “complete, modular party applications and middleware engines from and secure open operating system for mid and PacketVideo, Openwave, Sun and OZ. Full high-tier handsets”, touting the deep source code of the SavaJe platform is available customisability of the platform. It targets OEMs to manufacturers to assist in integration. and ODMs who wish to develop media-centric handsets. Royalties for the operating system run Technology at $10 with the price dropping considerably for One of SavaJe’s unique selling points is that the larger volumes. entire UI is based on Java, allowing manufacturers and operators complete freedom SavaJe first showcased a prototype LG handset to customise the UI (although this comes at a in 2005, but failed to impress operators, which cost in terms of time and effort required). The we understand was due to lack of stability, poor company provides a reference UI framework and battery life and unattractive industrial design. VisionMobile research 41 is working on developing a second one, to assist development of a Linux kernel will increase manufacturers with the customisation process. hardware portability, one of the issues the SavaJe OS is suffering from. SavaJe OS also features a superficial UI customisation framework, allowing menus, icons SavaJe also plan to deliver a complete reference and colour schemes to be altered using XML. implementation of the operating system, compliant to Vodafone Live! release 10 Applications can be developed using Java CDC requirements. and CLDC profiles. This does offer richer capabilities to applications, compared to most Viewpoint

Java handsets in the market. However, Java SavaJe’s initial strategy of targeting operator applications will not necessarily run on SavaJe and not manufacturer customers is largely to out of the box. Owing to the inconsistencies blame for lack of commercial traction; operators across the 100s of Java platform variants have been willing to invest in the platform, but deployed to date, a porting effort will be required unwilling to translate platform investments into for most applications. device purchases. The renewed focus to OEMs and ODMs will improve the stakes, but still According to the company, the OS has been SavaJe is suffering from issues that plague all ported to TI and Intel dual-core chipsets with premature operating systems.Power porting underway onto ST Microlectronics and management issues, radio stack stability and Qualcomm chipsets. The platform requires a software integration issues will require many minimum hardware of ARM9-class processor months and manufacturer know-how to resolve, clocked at 150-200MHz with 32MB ROM and particularly at a time when SavaJe is now 32MB RAM. Supported screen sizes are VGA maintaining a second kernel. SavaJe also lacks and QVGA. a rapid UI prototyping framework such as these productised by Digital Airways and TAT – a Strategy Java-based UI does offer full flexibility, but at a Recognising the importance of a complete considerable cost in terms of time-to-market. product, SavaJe launched a partner program in

June 2006 with the intention to pre-integrate and The development of a Linux kernel will increase pre-test third party components running on top of hardware portability, one of the issues the the SavaJe platform – an effort similar to SavaJe OS is suffering from. However, SavaJe MontaVista’s Mobilinux Open Framework. is now late in the market, and will face serious competition from Linux software stacks such as SavaJe is also developing a second kernel ALP, A la Mobile, Purple Lab and Aplix, as well based on Linux, although the company is not as established vendors MontaVista And discontinuing development of its own kernel. The Trolltech.

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C.13 | Symbian OS Symbian OS APPS UIF AEE MIDW KRNL Launched: 1998 Licensees: 12 Models: 100+ Base: 82M

consecutive years, driven by two major Background manufacturer groups: Nokia, which is Symbian was founded in 1998 as a spin-off from responsible for around 70% of Symbian OS Psion Software Group and funded by several shipments and DoCoMo’s group of device manufacturers with the aim to develop manufacturers in Japan, primarily Fujitsu. In and license a software platform for mobile Japan, Symbian OS has shipped in over 10 devices. Today Symbian has over 1,300 million mobile phones, in the form of 38 device employees and is headquartered in London with models from 6 handset vendors as of September offices in the US, UK, Sweden (UIQ Technology 2006. Comparatively, there are 39 S60-based AB), Israel, India, China, Korea and Japan. The device models (7 of which are non-Nokia) and current shareholders are Nokia (47.9%), 13 UIQ-based devices which have been Ericsson (15.6%), Sony Ericsson (13.1%), launched as of August 2006, according to Panasonic (10.5%), Samsung (4.5%) and Symbian, S60 and UIQ websites. Siemens (8.4%). Symbian’s revenue model is based on handset Revenues for the company were reported at £80 royalties at a minimum of $2.5 per unit at large million for 1H06, with over 90% contributed by volumes, with average per-unit royalties per-unit royalties. Symbian’s CEO, Nigel Clifford, standing at $5.5 (incl. UIQ fees) in 1H06. The was appointed in May 2005 and comes from a price cut is likely to have come from Nokia who telecoms operator background. pays Symbian around $100 million annually. As Nomura research points out, Nokia’s Positioning disproportionate share of shipments (over 70%), Symbian creates and licenses Symbian OS, compared to share of stock (47.9%), implies that which the company describes as “an operating Nokia stands to lose on its investment as system based on open standards for advanced Symbian becomes profitable. mobile phones, also called ‘smartphones’”. Symbian OS is the biggest-selling open Product operating system, which has been deployed on Symbian OS began life in Psion in 1994, which over 80 million handsets, and over 100 device developed EPOC Release 1 featured on the models as of June 2006. Series 5 organisers. Following the spin off, EPOC 5 was re-branded as Symbian OS 5. Mobile phone manufacturers that license

Symbian OS are Arima, BenQ Siemens, Fujitsu, Today Symbian OS is a semi-complete Lenovo, LGE, Motorola, Mitsubishi, Nokia, operating system providing hardware drivers, Panasonic, Samsung, Sharp and Sony Ericsson. kernel and key middleware components. The OS Symbian targets primarily tier-1 and tier-2 is offered with complete source code and is (with manufacturers of high-end feature phones and few exceptions) modifiable by the manufacturer. smartphones. The Symbian OS kernel is believed to be one of Year-on-year growth of Symbian OS-based the most advanced kernels for mobile handsets. device shipments has been over 100% for four Above the kernel reside a number of libraries to VisionMobile research 43 support graphics, memory, filesystems, for new features in S60 v3 and UIQ v3. Due to telephony, networking and application the changed effected, OS 9.x breaks management. The middleware layer of Symbian compatibility for existing Symbian applications OS includes engines and protocol support for and raises the barrier for small application applications, browser, messaging, base UI developers as applications for 9.x handsets have libraries, multimedia codecs and Java support. to be certified. OS 8 has further introduced support for single core architectures that can The separation of the UI layer dates back to reduce the silicon BOM. 2001 and was made in the interest of greater manufacturer differentiation. Today, the user Strategy interface framework, several middleware Recognising manufacturer challenges, Symbian components, application execution environment continues to extend the platform with capabilities and application suites are provided by S60, UIQ that facilitate hardware and software integration. or MOAP. S60 and UIQ are reviewed separately A parallel strategy for Symbian is to sustain the in this paper. It is worth noting that Psion had operating system’s position ahead of the developed yet another UI, codenamed Hildon competition in terms of technical excellence and which is no longer maintained, but has been support for new hardware and software ported on Nokia’s Maemo Linux platform. capabilities.

Development on Symbian OS is unified with S60 Viewpoint and UIQ under Nokia’s Carbide C++ Despite its technical brilliance, Symbian is one of development environment which is based on the most politically complex companies in the Eclipse. mobile industry today. It’s biggest customer, Nokia, is also a competitor since it continues Technology keeping Symbian’s contributions below the Symbian OS requires a minimum of an ARM9 software ‘value line’, even though that has processor with a memory management unit. damaged its own S60 licensing strategy (see Other hardware requirements are dictated analysis in Section A.4). Despite being a primarily by the UI and AEE layers. Symbian OS platform company, Symbian has limited has been ported on several architectures influence over its developer strategy and including Freescale, Texas Instruments and ST operator strategy due to the platform’s Microelectronics. incompleteness and the control exercised by Nokia. Furthermore, given that Panasonic and Launched in early 2005, Symbian OS 9.x marks BenQ Siemens have no devices shipping with a major change in the OS release history. With Symbian, we expect them to be looking to sell 9.x Symbian has introduced an advanced their stock , which will cede the balance of power application security model, a real-time kernel into fewer manufacturer hands. with predictable execution times and reduced latency, DRM, firmware over-the-air and support

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C.14 Trolltech Qtopia Trolltech Qtopia family APPS UIF AEE MIDW KRNL | Launched: 2000 Licensees: 40 Models: 11 Base: 4M

customised. Many components of Qtopia are Background provided under a dual license scheme, either in Founded in 1994, Trolltech is a Linux software GPL or a commercial royalty-based version. The stack and tools vendor. The company has 170 commercial version is licensed with pricing employees and is headquartered in Oslo, ranging from sub-dollar amounts to a few dollars, Norway with offices in Beijing, Silicon Valley, depending on volume. Trolltech additionally has Australia and Germany. The company has revenues from per-seat fees for developer tools received funding from Index Ventures, Borland and increasingly from its professional services and NorthZone and raised approx. $22 million business. The company sees Windows Mobile through its July 2006 IPO on the Oslo Stock as the main competitor for Qtopia and Linux in Exchange. The company reported 2Q06 general. revenues of NOK40.6 million (approx. $6.4 million), corresponding to an operating loss of The company claims to be working with over 100 NOK13.74 million (approx. $2.2 million). manufacturers of whom 40 are building mobile phones (other target appliances include media First launched in 1994, the company’s core players, VoIP phones and medical devices). product is Qt (pronounced ‘cute’) an application According to company reports, 11 mobile phone execution environment and user interface models and 30 embedded devices have been framework for Windows, Mac and Linux desktop released to date running the Qt or Qtopia environments. platform. In total, Trolltech claims more than 4 million devices have shipped based on the Qtopia is a family of products for mobile and Qt/Embedded and Qtopia products as of July embedded Linux that builds on Qt and includes 2006, with a significant portion of shipments Qtopia Core (the embedded Linux port of Qt, having been through Motorola’s Linux phones. previously called Qt/ Embedded), the Qtopia

Platform (a superset of Core adding application Trolltech embedded products have been management), Qtopia Phone Edition (a superset primarily shipping in China with design wins from of Platform adding an application suite and Motorola and Chinese ODMs Cellon, ZTE and optimisations for mobile handsets) and Qtopia Wistron (which launched in Europe with MVNO PDA edition. Neuf), while the company has not yet made its mark in Japan. Qtopia competes on Linux with Positioning Mizi Prizm, GTK+ and MiniGUI. Trolltech touts openness and source code availability among its key differentiators. Qtopia also leverages on 12 years of user interface development and a 100,000-strong application Product developer community behind Qt. Qtopia Phone Edition (QPE) is a middleware layer, application execution environment (AEE), Qtopia targets consumer electronics user interface framework and application suite manufacturers producing feature-rich handsets for Linux mobile phones. It is sits on top of where the user interface can be completely commercial Linux OS distributions (e.g. VisionMobile research 45

MontaVista or Wind River), and is available to Strategy manufacturers in source code form. Following the IPO in July 2006, Trolltech is planning to acquire key technologies to Qtopia Phone Edition builds on Qt with a complement its product. The company will windowing system, application lifecycle continue focusing on core competences, management, database management, filesystem particularly the richness of the application support, the Helix multimedia framework, platform, but also the user interface. Trolltech is telephony integration and a range of applications planning to grow its professional services including PIM, messaging and a media player. It business, although it intends to remain true to its supports multitasking and enhanced graphical IP licensing business model tradition. features such as transparencies, watermarks, and shadows. Qtopia Phone Edition has In an effort to grow the developer community supported both touch-screens (popular in around Qtopia and its partners, Trolltech technology-driven Asia) and keypad interfaces recently announced Greenphone, a complete (popular in convenience-driven markets such as GSM/GPRS mobile phone. The candybar- Europe and the US) since November 2004. shaped Linux-based phone is manufactured by Chinese ODM Yahua Teltech, includes Qtopia Trolltech’s core focus is on the AEE and UI Phone Edition and key partner applications and layers. The company has built an eco-system of is expected to be available in September 2006 partners providing other elements of a complete as part of a developer kit that includes source mobile software stack, including Opera, Real, code. The phone features a dual-core Marvell Openwave, Teleca, Montavista, Wind River, (formerly Intel) XScale processor clocked at Beep Science, Taproot, Innvo and Zi. 312MHz and a QVGA touch-screen display.

Technology Viewpoint Qtopia allows manufacturers to deliver Trolltech’s Qtopia Core (previously substantially differentiated user interfaces by Qt/Embedded) is one of the most widely modifying the product’s C++ source code. deployed Linux-based commercial software Trolltech has also built an XML customisation products. Qtopia enjoys continued success with framework into the product that allows the idle customer Motorola who in 2Q06 ordered an screen, dialler and call screen to be easily additional 200 developer licenses (in addition to modified. Overall, customisation of the user the 100 they already had); this should see interface is accessible to engineers, but not Qtopia being shipped in more handsets for Asia, designers. Trolltech claims that around 100,000 US and European markets. developers today are familiar with Qt and can therefore develop applications on Qtopia and Infiltrating the Japan and Korea handset markets customise the UI. remains a foremost challenge for Trolltech, where it will face competition from GTK+ and Qtopia requires a minimum ARM9 200MHz MOAP-L. The Greenphone presents a processor with 32MB ROM and 32MB RAM, pioneering offering of a complete which is the typical specification of today’s software/hardware platform for open source feature-rich phones. The Qtopia UI supports a developers which we expect will considerably minimum 176x208 resolution but can scale boost the open source contributions to arbitrarily using a dynamic layout algorithm. embedded Linux, will grow the Linux phone market, and probably Trolltech’s share of that market, too. VisionMobile research 46

UIQ Technology’s UIQ APPS UIF AEE MIDW KRNL C.15 | UIQ Launched: 1999 Licensees: 4 Models: 13 Base: N/A

Arima U308, Motorola M1000, Motorola A1000, Background BenQ P30, Sony Ericsson P910, Sony Ericsson An alternative to S60 and MOAP, UIQ is a P900, Motorola A925, Motorola A920, Sony software stack comprising of a user interface Ericsson P800 and Arima U300. A slightly framework, application suite and middleware modified version of BenQ P30, the P31 has that runs on top of Symbian OS. The software is OEM’ed as the Nokia 6708 and released to Asia, developed by UIQ Technology, a wholly owned according to several independent reports. UIQ subsidiary of Symbian Ltd. since 1999. Technology does not disclose the number of handsets that UIQ has shipped on. UIQ Technologies promotes itself as a “world- class provider of user interface platforms for According to company reports, approximately media-rich mobile phones”. The company 1.5K applications are available for UIQ 2.x, as of employs 180 people and is located in Ronneby, mid 2006. southern Sweden. UIQ Technology develops and licenses the UIQ software to handset Product manufacturers and distributes SDKs to UIQ consists of a number of components. Firstly, developers. the user interface framework which provides layout managers and UI building blocks for Positioning applications. Secondly, the application suite, Similar to S60, UIQ consists of the top-level which includes a telephony application, calendar, software stack components, namely a user contacts, todo list, calculator, jotter, messaging interface framework, application suite, (email, SMS, MMS), browser (HTML, WAP), application execution environment and voice recorder and multimedia file viewers. middleware engines. Symbian’s subsidiary Thirdly, middleware which includes device positions UIQ as a “media-rich, flexible and management, SVG Tiny engine, DRM customizable software platform, pre-integrated framework, and data synchronisation. Fourth, an and tested with Symbian OS”. application execution environment accessible through native C++ and Java MIDP 2. Per-unit The third and latest version of UIQ enables royalties for UIQ are estimated at $2.5 on manufacturers to target a truly wide variety of average. Full UIQ source code is available to form factors and handset input methods, handset manufacturers and select partners. including any combination of display layout

(portrait/landscape) and screen size with Compared to S60, UIQ is more open and different interaction methods (touch-screen, extensible by developers and manufacturers. menu bar/ softkey bar and hardware keys). For example, UIQ provides a DRM framework, but does not mandate the DRM agent to be used, UIQ is licensed by Sony Ericsson, Motorola, while it allows third party IM applications to BenQ Siemens and Arima. As of August 2006, access the contacts application. UIQ has been featured on 13 commercial handsets, namely the Sony Ericsson W950, UIQ 3 offers several unique and differentiating Sony Ericsson M600, Sony Ericsson P990, features compared to S60 and other software VisionMobile research 47 stacks. Most importantly, this latest version UIQ requires a minimum of an ARM9 or ARM11 supports single-handed use through a highly processor at around 140 MHz and can be used flexible framework that allows manufacturers to on both single-core and dual-core chipsets. create any handset (with any combination of Minimum RAM and ROM requirement is 16 MB parameters from display orientation, display size, and 24 MB. touch-screen capability , hardware keys, softkey bar and menu bar) from the same code base. Strategy UIQ Technology has focused extensively on the UIQ 3 also offers an Operator Configuration scalability of its platform across different handset Package (OCP) which offers a range of form factors and input methods, as well as the elements customisable by manufacturers and customisability by both operators and operators. UIQ was earlier only available for manufacturers (although the company has no phones supporting touch screens and pen- plans to provide rapid UI customisation tools). based input, but is now also available for one- The company is also planning to complete the handed use with softkeys. UIQ software stack by adding more non- differentiating components to the product. By combining the display layout Improving the tools technology is another (portrait/landscape) and size with different strategic priority for UIQ. interaction methods (touch-screen, menu bar/ softkey bar and hardware keys), several different Viewpoint types of phones can be created. UIQ Compared to Nokia’s S60, UIQ’s licensing Technology provide five pre-defined strategy appears to be bearing more fruit. There configurations, having optimised their own are 13 commercial device models featuring UIQ application suite for two reference configurations, to date, compared to only 7 non-Nokia S60 Pen Style and Softkey Style. devices. UIQ offers a wealth of user experience customisation options and presents a much Technology greater degree of freedom to the manufacturer in The Operator Configuration Package (OCP) terms of handset form factors and input methods. presents a broad but shallow range of user interface customisation options for Sony Ericsson has been the main backer of UIQ, manufacturers and operators. This includes which has announced impressive consumer- themes (images, sounds and colours), key oriented and music-oriented designs following its animations and sounds (at start-up, shut-down, P9xx line of prosumer-oriented PDA phones. We and at network events), pre-loaded content, pre- believe that with v3, UIQ is offering a mature and loaded settings, and links embedded in menus. flexible top-half stack for manufacturers, but one The licensee can lock some of these items or whose success will be influenced by Nokia’s allow the end user to change them. operational control on Symbian’s product roadmap.

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Windows Mobile APPS UIF AEE MIDW KRNL C.16 | Windows Mobile Launched: 2002 Licensees: 7 Models: 22 Base: ~5M

from 115 operators in 55 countries (most of them Background in EMEA). Windows Mobile for Smartphone The world’s largest software company was slow licensees include HTC (the primary force behind to jump on the mobile bandwagon but made a phone based on Windows Mobile), Chi Mei, stormy entrance into the mobile handset market Compal, Mitac, Motorola, Samsung and Palm; in 2002. Based on a strategy of addressing Microsoft reports 47 device maker partners, mobile operator and enterprise needs such as although the vast majority are producing PDAs branding, device management, synchronisation rather than mobile phones. Of particular and security, Windows Mobile has importance has been the announcement that accomplished design wins not only from HTC, DoCoMo, an ex-Microsoft rival would sell but also Motorola, Palm and Samsung. Windows Mobile devices, apparently lured by the appeal of Microsoft devices to corporate Revenue for the Mobile and Embedded Devices customers. division in the nine months ending 31 March

2006 was $264 million with an operating income Product of $4 million, a considerable improvement over Both the Smartphone and PocketPC variants of the division’s accounts in the previous two years. Windows Mobile are based on Windows CE.NET. It is estimated as much as 80-90% of Positioning code and features are shared between the two Windows Mobile is positioned as a one-stop- variants, with the difference being in the solution for operators, manufacturers and application suite and parts of the user interface software developers, in a similar fashion to framework Qualcomm’s BREW (albeit without the application shopping infrastructure). Both variants are developed by the same organisational division within Microsoft. We Windows Mobile is targeted to ODMs and OEMs believe that the bias of Windows Mobile towards who wish to deliver data-rich, multimedia business users and prosumers is largely a result devices, either voice-centric handsets or data- of this structure and the archetypal design centric smartphones. Based on a common principles that stem from the Windows heritage. platform, Windows Mobile is available in two editions, Smartphone and Pocket PC. The The latest Mobile 5.0 was revenue model is based on per-unit royalties released to manufacturers in May 2005. It is a (which analyst Nomura estimates to $6), and major new release for Microsoft, focusing on developer seat licenses. extending the power of the platform to developers, providing tighter integration to Shipments of Windows Mobile powered Microsoft properties (MSN, Hotmail, Windows smartphones were over 2.1 million in 2005 Media Player and Windows Media DRM), better according to Gartner, or 4.7% of the smartphone connectivity to business applications and market. Microsoft reports over 50 Windows support for 3G and WiFi networks. Mobile converged devices (including an estimated 22 mobile phone models) available VisionMobile research 49

Windows Mobile provides a complete software Strategy stack that spans from the kernel and middleware In brief, Windows Mobile strategy is to tightly to the application execution environment control the makeup of the software stack and the (supporting both native C++ and the .NET device look & feel, while focusing continually on Compact Framework) and the application suite. opening the platform to developers. The .NET Compact Framework is an interpreted environment that simplifies application We believe that Microsoft’s endgame is not to development (much like Java) and is integrated sell Windows Mobile licenses. Even if Microsoft in all Windows Mobile 2003 and Windows Mobile were to secure 5% of the total handset market 5.0 devices. Microsoft’s product portfolio by 2009, the license fees would account for less includes Mobile2Market, a certification and than 1% of the company’s revenues today. marketing programme for mobile applications, Instead, we believe Windows Mobile aims to similar to BREW’s software catalog. The drive sales of Microsoft’s server, office and programme speeds up time-to-market for increasingly, media services. applications by acting as the conduit between market channels (typically operators) and Microsoft’s OS has been particularly successful software developers. in the enterprise and prosumer segment, not only because of reliable PIM synchronisation Technology with Outlook and Exchange, but also because of

The first version of Windows Mobile was ahead easy application development and extensive of the competition in terms of offering extensive device management capabilities. Microsoft’s skinning and branding opportunities on the licensing of the ActiveSync PIM synchronisation handset. The product has since been slow to protocol to its competitors in 2005 was likely due evolve in terms of UI customisability, lagging to pressure from the server group who were behind most other software stack solutions, eager to see sales of server software instigated including BREW. On the contrary, Microsoft has by connected device sales. faired extremely well in opening the platform to Viewpoint developers, with the company reporting more than 18,000 commercial Windows Mobile According to an industry commentator, Windows applications available as of mid 2006. Mobile’s strategy towards manufacturers is “WWHISWYG” (“What We Have IS What You Windows Mobile technology has also included Get”), contrary to the common software industry operator-friendly features from the outset, such practice. At the same time, the company has as device management, application security and been very successful at luring more than 100 PIM synchronisation.. operators (a primary customer type for Microsoft) with converged, brand-able device Windows Mobile has been ported onto TI, Intel propositions. In 2006, Windows Mobile made and Samsung reference designs. Judging by significant advancements with licensees Palm, HTC’s immature first two handset model Samsung and the support of DoCoMo. Moving iterations, bringing a first Windows Mobile forward, the challenge for Windows Mobile is to handset to market is an endeavour that takes extend from the enterprise territory, which it has roughly two years. largely claimed, onto penetrating the consumer mass market.

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D Trends in the Mobile Software Market

We conclude this paper by summarising the key A new generation of flexible operating systems observations from this study and outline the will be emerging to offer these qualities; Purple trends that will be shaping this market in the next Labs, and Applix’s BTO model are an early three years. confirmation of that trend. Linux will feature in most ‘flexible OS’ products, due firstly to the platform’s flexibility, secondly its backing by an TREND #1 innovative open source community and thirdly its backing by a growing commercial support Open OSes are out; Flexible OSs are in community. Open operating systems such as Windows Mobile and Symbian OS were once in the industry limelight, as they were able to offer TREND #2 ease of development and ease of deployment Commoditisation of the core OS technology for operator applications and services. As we argued in Section A.1, ease of development and In the first few years of the decade, operating deployment is no longer the issue. Application systems powering mobile phones were execution environments like Java, Flash Lite, struggling to keep up with the increased features S60, Qtopia and Openwave MIDAS do provide and customisability they had to support. Fast for openness; what is of paramount importance forward to 2006, and most scalability, multimedia though is the degree of platform availability and feature and radio interface challenges have consistency across device models, been resolved. Software that can power a manufacturers, operators and regions. mainstream mobile handset is now widely available through proprietary 3 rd party (e.g. What is in demand today is flexible OSs. As Nucleus, VxWorks), proprietary internal (e.g. argued in Section A.1, the operating systems (or NOS, OSE) or open 3rd party (e.g. Mobilinux, software stacks, to use a more technically Symbian) products. In economics terms, there is accurate term) of today need to offer flexibility in greater supply than demand and barriers to terms of: market entry are at an all-time low with the rise a) rapid prototyping tools for UI customisation of a commercial Linux community for mobile b) an application execution environment with phones. broad, consistent implementation across a broad range of devices and ability to support The ‘use value’ of the core OS (to borrow a term development of complete application suites and coined by S. Raymond) has definitely not c) flexibility in supporting a wide range of decreased; the kernel and hardware drivers of chipsets and hardware reference platforms. the software stack are absolutely essential to support tomorrow’s advanced mainstream VisionMobile research 51 handsets. However, the sale value of a core OS manufacturers through outsourced technology is constantly reducing. In other words, vendors and services. This trend is in line with the regular are finding it difficult to demand per-unit royalties shifts between the horizontal and vertical from core OS sales, when a wealth of supply structure that occur in most other industries, as exists. However, the upper layers of the software modelled by Charles H. Fine’s Double Helix, a stack are still able to command high royalties, as seminal management theory. is the case with Flash Lite, BREW and application suite vendors. As a result, the sale In this consolidation of supply, we believe that value line is slowly but predictably moving incumbent vendors such as MontaVista, upwards through the software stack. Trolltech, Microsoft, Nokia (S60), Adobe (Flash Lite), Obigo and Openwave with mature technology and broad market penetration will

TREND #3 maintain an advantage over the current plethora of software vendors. Verticalisation of technology supply

A third market trend that is now clear is the TREND #4 verticalisation of the software technology market, i.e. the product consolidation on the supply side Consolidation of platform demand of the equation . For the first time in mobile software history, we From the in-house-developed operating systems are witnessing a consolidation of mobile of the 90s, to the specialisation and software software platforms from the demand side of the component outsourcing trends of the first half of equation , which is in symmetry with the previous the decade, we believe that the market is slowly trend. Not only manufacturers, but also coming full circle to see vendors and products enterprises and mobile operators are making a merge to form complete, productised software choice of software platform. stacks in the next three years. There are several examples today of the verticalisation of software The reason for the consolidation of demand is technology: Esmertec’s acquisition of Coretek that the choice of software platform has (an applications developer), Tao’s evolution of significant and long-term repercussions to the its Intent platform into an application total cost of ownership (TCO), a fact that applies environment, Aplix’s product evolution to a equally to manufacturers, enterprises and mobile complete software stack, and the introduction of operators. pre-integrated, productised Linux-based Platform TCO has traditionally concerned software stacks from A la Mobile, Access Linux handset manufacturers, as platform Platform, and Purple Labs in 1H06. development, testing and maintenance costs are

A form of technology verticalisation is also severely platform- and tools- dependent. evident in the ecosystem programmes run by Motorola’s consolidation of the tens of internal Trolltech, MontaVista and SavaJe which pre- development efforts into few common platforms, test and pre-integrate complementary 3 rd party has led to the manufacturer’s endorsement of components into complete solutions. Linux-based software for the majority of phone shipments in the next two years, as Motorola’s The move to vertically integrated software VP of Software confirmed in August 2006. technology comes not only to address the fragmentation challenges in the market, but also Enterprises with mobility needs are also making to lower the platform development cost for a platform choice. Microsoft’s Windows Mobile VisionMobile research 52 has been very well placed and proactively basis for a reference platform, that among designed to form an integral part of the fulfilling other goals we believe forms a platform enterprise’s IT infrastructure. The rich-data export strategy for DoCoMo. capabilities, synchronisation to back-office email systems, advanced device management The first half of 2006 saw the Linux commercial features and extensive security framework of community growing quickly with the entrance of Windows Mobile –based devices, have all Wind River (a major proprietary RTOS vendor) contributed to the selection of Windows Mobile in the Linux phone scene, along with numerous as the lowest common denominator for software vendors, including Digital Airways, enterprise handset purchase decisions. Purple Labs, A la Mobile, Access and Aplix. In parallel, the first two Linux-based devices There are also signs that mobile operators are shipped in Europe, the Qtopia-based Wistron moving towards making a platform choice. The Neweb GW1 and the Purple Labs-based number of software platforms shipping on Vitelcom G500i, demonstrating that Asia and operator-customised handsets has a direct Japan were not a regional limit. Equally impact on the operator cost of customisation, importantly, the industry including Western time-to-market and content adaptation. Since mobile operators is becoming increasingly 1H05, Vodafone has managed to cap the growth familiar with Linux, and overcoming the fear, of software platforms shipping on its handsets; uncertainty and doubt circulating the otherwise with the Open Platform Initiative co-led with little-known platform. DoCoMo and four other handset manufacturers, the operator plans to develop a single Linux- Looking three years into the future, we believe based reference OS. Operator Orange has long Linux will grow substantially as a preferred OS used Windows Mobile as the (initial) basis of its for a greater share of manufacturers and device ‘Signature’ handsets, partly due to the product’s models. Furthermore, in the backdrop of customisability. Taking a lesson from DoCoMo, consolidation, we believe that Symbian’s viability KDDI has in the last two years elevated the role will be challenged, given that Nokia pays $100M of BREW into an AEE for supporting its for development of an OS which it could easily customised application suite. We believe other in-source (see Section A. 4). In parallel, we major operators will be selecting single software believe Qualcomm’s commitment to BREW will platforms in the next two years, which will lead to be questioned. The QIS division which develops consolidation in software supply. BREW is part of the Qualcomm Wireless & Internet division, which brought in less than 9% of Qualcomm revenues for the first nine months

TREND #5 of fiscal 2006, a dramatic drop from 12% a year earlier. This drop occurs at a time when the 2006: The turning point for Linux company has demonstrated willingness to rely

Within this backdrop of market trends, 2006 on Microsoft’s Windows Mobile platform to marks a turning point for Linux. penetrate the European market (an Achilles heal for Qualcomm) in return for chipset and IP- Motorola’s pledge in August 2006 to use Linux based revenues, which together contribute over for powering more that half of the manufacturer’s 90% of Qualcomm’s $7B annual revenues. handsets in the next two years is only the tip of the iceberg. The Open Platform Initiative, In this light, the future for Linux and Microsoft on established by DoCoMo, Vodafone and four mobile devices is looking particularly rosy. major manufacturers, plans to use Linux as the Perhaps the war of the OSs has yet to be played out. VisionMobile research 53