MobileMe, OVI and My Phone - the Birth of the new Walled Gardents
For years (and years) I struggled with the mobile operators’ “Walled Garden” attitude. For years mobile operators tried to convince me that only they can offer quality mobile services simply because (and here you can add any reason you want). The truth was that all they wanted it to keep their grip on the user.
In the last couple of years I began witnessing cracks in this approach. Mobile operators added developer environments and portals which allowed simpler integration to their networks and easier ways to access their users and more.
So I should be happy. Well, I’m not.
The main reason is in parallel we witness the birh and rise of new “Walled Gardens”. Apple’s MobileMe offers me their service but ONLY if I use an iPhone…well, I don’t. Microsoft’s My Phone offers me their service but I have to be an owner of a Windows Mobile phone (ya….really…me…Windows Mobile…). And Nokia offers me OVI but I have to use a Nokia S60 phone….
Moreover, each and every service keeps me locked within their domain. Lets assume I use a (hmmmm) Windows Mobile phone (just joking there) and I want to move my data to the latest and greatest Nokia N97 (please release it already…) - hmm… sorry.
OK… I want to sync my data with Google (Calendar and Contacts) - nope sorry. I want to share my pictures with Flickr - nope sorry.
Someone give me device independar, Internet service friendly mobile content sync service!
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(3 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
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June 24th, 2009 at 12:43 am
I totally agree! I use a Mac at home, a Nokia e71, Outlook at work, and Google mail and calendar. It just plain sucks that there isn’t a standard so that they can all talk to each other seamlessly. Sure, there are workarounds and 3rd party programs and solutions to synchronize them, but they only work if you have the time to configure them and overlook their shortcomings.