OS Watch: RIM Battles Carriers for Mobile Money
What's in your (mobile) wallet? If it's up to BlackBerry , it will be a BlackBerry device, but if the operators' vote wins, it'll just be a SIM card.
RIM is butting heads with the wireless operators over who gets to control mobile wallet-related data, the Wall Street Journal reports Friday.
If, like the operators want, data -- users' credentials typically stored in a credit card -- are encrypted and held in the SIM card, it can be transferred with ease between device. If, per RIM's wishes, it's stored in the handset, consumers are tied to their phone. The battle is brewing over who owns the relationship with the consumer when it comes to mobile commerce.
As the WSJ points out, RIM typically does what the operators want, even holding off on embedding its App World until they were ready. But it appears to be drawing the line at mCommerce. Everyone, including carriers, handset makers, operating system providers and banks are testing out solutions in this area. And, since no one has a solid grip on the market yet, this likely won't be the last time competing interests butt heads.
The idea behind PTPT is that it rids Android of silos and brings together a user's personal content, but it also adds another element to the fragmentation equation. When everyone -- from carriers to handset makers to consumers -- can customize their own OS skin, it may becomes more difficult to issue uniform OS updates as the number of Android versions grows.
The company has a video demo of PTPT below:
To help tackle the fragmentation problem, Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) is beginning to offer more stats to developers on the devices, apps, languages and OS versions their subscribers are using.
In the following video, Fritz Nelson, editorial director of Light Reading sister-company InformationWeek sits down with Apotheker to talk about the future of HP.
— Sarah Reedy, Senior Reporter, Light Reading Mobile
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