Xonio 214 - Der Handy-Podcast - Episode 014

Im 14. Podcast haben wir zwei führende Manager aus der Mobilfunkwelt zu Gast, mit denen ich im Rahmen der IT-Messe Systems in München Interviews geführt habe. Den Anfang macht Rich Miner, der Head of Mobile Platforms bei Google. Ein Transkript dieses Interviews findet Ihr in diesem Blogeintrag. Wenn Ihr hier klickt, landet Ihr direkt bei iTunes und könnt Xonio 214 abonnieren. Außerdem spricht Anssi Vanjoki, Executive Vice President Markets von Nokia, über den blauen VW Käfer, natürlich ein Modell, den er mit dem N82 steuern kann und über die Dienste-Strategie des Marktführers. Seine Einschätzung: In fünf Jahren wird die Mobilfunkwelt Kopf stehen – dank dem mobilen Web 2.0. Als Gegenentwurf dazu dient die Marktanalyse von Andreas Gregori, dem Marketing-Chef von E-Plus. Der drittgrößte Netzbetreiber setzt auf niedrige Preise, einfache Angebote – und auf Werbung auf dem Handy. Viel Spaß mit den beiden Interviews und meinen Eindrücken vom Mobile Summit, der im Rahmen der Systems abgehalten wurde. Und für alle Test-Süchtigen: Nächste Woche gibt´s wieder mehr beinharte Hardware-Fakten, versprochen. Jetzt aber erstmal das Transkript des Interviews mit Rich Miner von Google, aufgenommen am 21. Oktober 2008: Q: So when you said the software on the phone is completely from Google, did you mean all the software, also the base band part handling the mobile networks? Rich Miner: No, no, not the base band. All the stuff on the application side of the device. Q: Can I use the G1 with any T-Mobile SIM-Card? Rich Miner: Well, this first device is a T-Mobile device, so it takes T-Mobile SIMs. This device does have APNs, I mean, we haven´t localized it yet, but markets here we´ll be working with T-Mobile to launch it here. You should be able to put (a german T-Mobile-SIM-Card inside). Q: Why don´t you bring it on the European market same time as the US? Rich Miner: You know, we´re building an open source platform, releasing an open source platform, launching, just doing the localization, there´s a lot of work to do. Really, it´s just finishing the localization and getting it localized for the rest of Europe. Q: Who can build Applications for the G1? Rich Miner: Anyone can become an Android developer. To upload something into the marketplace, you need to register. Basically, we haven´t announced yet what´s involved in doing that but basically we´ll just do a credit validation, make sure you´re a real person. And if you´re a real person maybe (we) charge you a small token amount of money. Once you´ve done that, you´re now a certified developer. You get a key, you get to self-sign your own applications and upload your own applications to the market. Q: In what way is your approach to the mobile market different from Apples approach? Rich Miner: I talked about it in my talk, they´re very similar. It´s really coping developers to get their apps out to end-users. I think there are some editorial aspects that Apple does, which we´re not planning on doing. You know, we view it very much like YouTube, anyone should be able to upload any app. Q: If anyone is uploading some kind of harmful applications, then the market will fix the problem itself? Rich Miner: Yeah. So there´s a couple of ways. One is the terms of service, if somebody´s violating the terms of service, we´ll take the app off. And we can take the app off the market. We can also reach out to the devices and call the app off of the device if it´s proved to be harmful. … But then also, these are all rated just like in YouTube. So you don´t watch the bad videos on YouTube. So if an app is harmful I just don´t think it´s gonna have high stars next to it. So it´s really the apps that people enjoy, that have a good user experience, that benefit them. Those are the apps that people are gonna discover and download. The ones that are bad or in some way harmful won´t be visible there. We also have very good security policies. One of the things that we do is: When the user is downloading an app, it´s very transparent to them, what service an app uses. So if you´re downloading a sudoku rack and it says it must access your adress book and send SMS or MMS, you´ll see that. So why is this puzzle asking to access your services and the user can decide not to download it. Q: As Mr. Vanjoki said, there are already lots of applications for Symbian mobile phones of course. Is it only a question of distribution that they are not as successful as for example the iPhone right now with the App Store? Rich Miner: First of all it´s very difficult. You know you need to have your app signed, so that´s a process. You sort of have to submit and wait until it comes back and then the distribution model: There´s no good discovery built into the nokia phones. You have to rely on a carrier deck and people just don´t go to that. So having a complete immigrated discovery and downloading process with all sorts of apps available and visible, it´s just, it´s a much more intuitive way to get your apps to the user. And once you have to start making decisions of “First I have to go to Nokia, than I have to go to the carrier than maybe you have to go to the handset OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers)” – it´s just a much more complicated process.” (uba)