Spirit of rebellion against Google
By Cho Mu-hyun
BARCELONA ― It is imperative to keep your eyes peeled and listen closely in order not to miss the spirit of those gathering at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) last week.
The spirit is one of rebellion against the fear of a duopoly represented by Google and Apple.
And this was captured by two Korean firms.
“We want four to five operating systems competing to create a healthy market,” said Lee Suk-chae, chairman of KT, who urged cooperation against over-the-top players such as Google.
One senior executive of mobile carrier, SK Telecom, went so far as to say “Google is turning into a gangster. And gangsters don’t last long.”
Some may contend that the booths at Fira Gran Via, the main venue for the MWC, were filled with devices running on Google’s Android platform made by practically every manufacturer besides Apple.
It’s perhaps inevitable because Android is the only competitive, commercialized platform against Apple’s iOS.
But the direction being taken by mobile operators and manufacturers suggested an attempt to break up the incumbent regime.
There were no “wow” factor in this year’s MWC, but what’s brewing underneath are alliances here and there to release competing platforms such as Firefox or Tizen.
Though Android is open-sourced, there is an increased concern that it is going the same way as Apple and becoming closed.
“There is overwhelming concern from mobile operators of what Google is aiming to do,” a senior official of GSMA, the global alliance of operators that hosts the tradeshow, told The Korea Times. “Though they deny it, it seems clear to us that they are laying the foundations for total control of various services and becoming more and more closed.”
Talks of iOS and Android competitors are nothing new, and it has been tried before. The rebels include Bada, Symbian, Blackberry and Windows 8.
The control over the market that Apple and Google enjoy is also different from the past.
It seemed a free-for-all only a few years back, but now it’s more obviously a two-man game. No one likes a monopoly except the benefactor. In this case, it is a duopoly.
They had better prepare for the first punches, with Tizen and Firefox coming soon, and the onslaught that comes after that.
The rebellion is given more credibility when Samsung Electronics is taken into the picture. It is the only company with the caliber to match Apple or Google, at least for now, and Tizen is getting support from every major player in the industry ― Intel, Huawei, KT and other kings and would-be kings.