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wide choice of content and applications. The main consequence has been a
profound change in the mobile industry structure in particular dismantling
the traditional “walled garden” model typical of mobile operators.
There are recent and important examples of this new platform approach.
All of them are looking for new profi ts from the combination of mobile
content and applications with their portfolio of products and services, low-
ering techno-economic barriers and increasing the usability of consumption
and interaction with mobile content. Interestingly each of them represents a
dif erent approach to the same concept as explained in next section.
THE SOFTWARE PLATFORMS
In the mobile domain, software for games, either in the shape of content
or as an application, is developed for a particular platform as explained
previously.
Table 4.1
summarizes the main features for the most relevant
of them.
Interestingly, each platform represents a dif erent approach for develop-
ers and consumers. Apple's strategy suits rather strictly the “closed” model
where Apple basically uses a proprietary software development kit (SDK)
on top of its own operating system and hardware and keeps a tight control
on the developments and features of the applications. Almost on the oppo-
site side of the coin, Google's strategy follows the “open innovation” model
(Chesbrough 2006). This is a model nearer to the open source software, and
Google keeps the steering wheel for the evolution of the platform. In fact,
Google subsidizes the development of Android in exchange for deciding on
the most appropriate road map ahead for the software. Nokia's model has
been meandering somewhere in between the two, with the main dif erence
of covering not only the smartphones segment, but the features phones seg-
ment as well. Their model was initially closed (Symbian), then open (Sym-
bian also), then closed again (Windows Mobile from Microsoft). Other
main players in the mobile ecosystem have followed similar steps in their
approach to building mobile platforms and, for instance, Microsoft (Win-
dows for Mobile), RIM (BlackBerry), Palm, Samsung, Sony-Ericsson, Sun,
Qualcomm, vendor independent platforms, the mobile operators themselves
(Vodafone, Telefonica, etc.) and even Facebook have announced—and set
up—application stores and software platforms for interested developers.
All platforms have a relatively common structure. For instance, Apple's
platform is composed of four main pieces: the iPhone-iPod-iPad as the
mobile/portable devices (including Apple iOS as operating system); the
App Store, where applications are available for users to download; the
iTunes software as the billing and control system; and an SDK for inter-
ested parties. This same model has been imitated, for instance, by Google
(the Android suite, the smartphones based on it, its application store and a
set of software facilities for developers) and Microsoft (Windows Mobile,
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