Why Open Sourcing AnySIM is Bad for Apple

I seem to be one of the few people in the known universe that (a) does not have an iPhone and (b) does not want one. So I don't really care either way about this:

In an effort to keep up with Apple's changes at a faster speed, the iPhone Dev Team is considering open sourcing AnySIM, the free unlocking solution for the iPhone.

But I can tell you one thing: it will be very bad news for Apple if they do open source it. Why? Because this is a classic arms race between Apple and the hackers; opening up will mean that there are more of the latter, thinking more quickly and more creatively. Apple, on the other hand, will still be Apple, thinking its closed little thoughts. No contest.

One Door Closes, Another Door Opens

So Germany has decided to live in the past:

Deutsche Telekom AG, Europe's largest telephone company, can block buyers of Apple Inc.'s iPhone from using the handset on competitors' networks, a German court ruled, overturning an injunction won by Vodafone Group Plc.

The Regional Court of Hamburg said in a statement today that it lifted an injunction obtained by Vodafone that stopped Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile unit from selling the device only with exclusive contracts or software that restricted use on competitors' wireless systems.

But there is a long-term silver lining to this short-term cloud, as this analysis points out:

What might be the result of this? Hopefully Vodafone, and Verizon, will get a clue and offer more cooperation to Google’s Android, further opening their networks. They might also deliver a true Internet experience, rather than the walled garden of data services Verizon is noted for.

Full of Fail

Lovely piece here on the underwhelming launch of somebody's phone thingy in the UK. Makes yer proud to be British....

Wu's He?

On Nov. 5, Google (GOOG) unveiled what many in the phone business had long awaited. CEO Eric Schmidt explained how the search giant was ready to create new software for mobile phones that would shake up the telecom status quo. A Google-led "Open Handset Alliance" would provide consumers an alternative to the big cellular carriers and give them new choices among mobile phones and the types of nifty services that run on them, from e-mail to Google Maps.

Google's brain trust was again trying to change the rules of the game. Behind the scenes, they owe a sizable debt to a man nearly unknown outside the geeky confines of cyberlaw. He is Tim Wu, a Columbia Law School professor who provided the intellectual framework that inspired Google's mobile phone strategy. One of the school's edgier profs, Wu attends the artfest Burning Man, and admits to having hacked his iPhone to make it work on the T-Mobile (DT) network.

And the ever-modest Larry throws in the following helpful signpost:

Lawrence Lessig, a Stanford University law professor who has been the leader in arguing for reduced restrictions on what can go up on the Internet, predicts that Wu will become even more influential than he himself has been: "The second generation always has a bigger impact than the first."

Clearly, a name to remember.

Steve Jobs as a Ratchet of Openness

Normally, I would hawk and spit at the mere mention of the iPhone, since it's not exactly an open platform. But here's a more measured analysis of what's going on:

This is, in other words, a one-way ratchet in the right direction. Every time a handset maker wrings increased openness out of one wireless carrier, and thereby produces a handset that's superior to what's already on the market, that device will set a new baseline for the capabilities a phone should have. And the other carriers will have little choice but to follow suit by allowing similar features on their own networks. It may take a long time, but de facto open networks will get here eventually.

Put this way, I suppose we can say that more generally Jobs has been a ratchet of openness - for example, there's no doubt that it was the iPod that paved the way for DRM-less music, even if, ironically, it has not itself eschewed DRM. Perhaps we need individuals like Jobs, who, though outside the open world, are important catalysts for change towards openness.

iDon'tPhone

I seem to be one of the few people on this planet unaffected by the Steve Jobs Reality Distortion Field; indeed, I find the Fake Steve Jobs more, er, authentic. Desptie this, I have to confess I much enjoyed this Jobs profile by John Heilemann.

But in all its shrewd and witty analysis, it seems to miss the key thing about the iPhone: that it is not just expensive, but obscenely expensive in a world where many people earn less than $500 per year. In other words, the iPhone - rather like Jobs - is supremely narcissistic.

Perhaps that why Apple's products stick in my craw: with their self-assigned exclusivity and implicit sense of superiority, they are the antithesis of free software, which is inclusive and fundamentally egalitarian. The fact that MacOS is built on free software only adds insult to injury.

iPhone = Crippleware

Quite.

OpenMoko

iPhone? We don't need no stinkin' iPhone. We need this:

OpenMoko today announced the immediate availability of a completely integrated open source mobile communications platform in partnership with FIC, a world leader in motherboards, graphics cards, mobile solutions, and electronic devices. The announcement of the OpenMoko mobile communications platform coincides with the unveiling of FIC’s Neo1973 smartphone, which utilizes the full OpenMoko platform and will be available in January 2007.

Until now, mobile platforms have been proprietary and scattered. With the release of OpenMoko, which is based on the latest Linux open source efforts, developers now have an easy way to create applications and deliver services that span all users and provide a common “look and feel”. OpenMoko also offers common storage models and libraries for application developers, making writing applications for mobile phones fun and easy while guaranteeing swift proliferation of a wide range of applications for mobile phones. With such extremely high quality open frameworks, developers will be armed with exactly the tools they need to revolutionize the mobile industry.

(Via LWN.net.)

Scratching an Icon

Who is this Steve Jobs whereof they speak? I just don't get the mindless adulation of this person (try reading "The Journey is the Reward" to get some perspective).

Take the iPhone: a large mobile phone that has the whizzo idea of making the screen - the most vulnerable part - cover the entire surface, so that it will get scratched to kingdom come in about a week in most people's pockets (remember the iPod Nano saga?).

I suppose it will drive a huge aftermarket in phone protectors: maybe all the Jobs fanboys sell third-party add-ons to his products.