App Integration, Super Apps, Cloud, & Content Portability-MS and RIM may have it
I have been spending some time researching other Mobile platform while we are all waiting for QNX or BB8, or whatever. I am sure many of you technophiles do the same. A few things have occurred to me and I think they may be worth some discussion.
Many of us shed a tear when Ballmer announced the Bing integration into the BB OS going forward. While there is a prevailing sentiment that Bing is far inferior to Google in it�s effectiveness, I think this announcement may turn out be a good thing. Of course that depends on Several factors.
This one may get long, so please follow along with me (and be patient)
As many of you know iOS is effectively an �App Juke Box�. Apple set out to �Put the internet in your pocket�, however, they only wanted to do that if they could take your $$$ out of your pocket in the same motion. This is where Apple compromised the internet experience on iOS devices. Namely they refused to support Flash, and set about talking it down. Why do you think they did that? Well in part it is the reasons that they stated: Flash is a bloated resource hog and/or a security risk. However, another reason, is that Flash would let the end user choose where they obtain their media content from. So if the End User can go to a web site in safari mobile and play a game, watch a movie, or TV show, or utilize a web based application, then it reduces the reliance on iTunes. If the End User doesn�t go through iTunes, than Apple cannot fully monetize the user�s access to apps and media...and Apple has a lot tied into Media and Content delivery through iTunes (which existed back when the iOS platform was just a few models of iPods, and you could pay $.99 a song.)
So what did Apple do? They delivered rich web content via Apps which are only obtainable via iTunes, and under the full control of Apple. (Jail-breaking not withstanding.) Then Apple spun up the PR campaign to convince us all that there is not only an �app for that�, but that we need that App to get that content. The # Apps in the app store became a marketing bench mark as to the strength of the mobile platform. Consumers get barraged by that little �Download our app in iTunes� badge that is all over print and tv media. Many people want iPhones because things that they care about only provide iPhone apps. Palm, Windows Mobile, and RIM all suffered because their App Marketplaces were sparse. Google followed Apple�s model to an extent (which follows their own business model as they are effectively an ad firm) and developed a robust SDK and filled up their App store by helping developers monetize their apps through advertising.
Last year Jim Basille made a comment along the lines of how all apps do is deliver web based content, and if you just give the end users a desktop class browser that supports flash and other web technologies, than you really don�t need all those apps, now do you? (I am paraphrasing, so hold off on the torches and pitch forks) Well a whole bunch of us erupted at this statement. He was challenging the status quo that that Apple had set forth. What good is a smart phone, if there isn�t an app for that!? I tell you now, he was onto something. Of course it wasn't a smart statement coming from the CEO of a company that was desperately courting App Developers to make up the ground between BlackBerry�s App World, iTunes, and the Android Market. He was basically de valuing an initiative that his company was spending many millions on. Still he was onto something.
It shouldn't be about replacing browser capabilities with apps so that the revenue stream is safe. While this is perfectly sensible, if not genius for Apple, RIM doesn't really have a strong Media Content Delivery Model or revenue associated with that. They need to develop that, no doubt, but they don't have it today. So Apps for RIM should be about more than just delivering Web based content in a tightly controlled and monetized fashion. They should be about delivering an experience to the end user.
RIM has spoke often about Super Apps. Apps that are integrated into every aspect of a mobile user�s experience. They have spoken a lot about it, but have not delivered much on this front. Sure BB Travel may be on the right track, but its not quite there yet. I think the vision that RIM has for Super Apps, is what Microsoft is building into WP7, and possibly the Bing Integration they are working for BB OS.
There was little to no coverage of the demo of Bing that Ballmer presented at BBW. At least I never saw it, and CB didn�t focus on it too much. I apologize if they did, but I did not see much on this topic. However, I think this was a huge announcement at BBW, that has been somewhat swept under the carpet. So now fast forward to MS�s announcement of WP 7.1 �Mango�. They demo�d how they want apps not just to exist in the OS and launch into their own silo�s of content and delivery methods, but rather to integrate with the OS, and deliver a co-joined experience that benefits the mobile user. I mean what is a mobile device about? Getting to what to you need to in a fast and efficient manner. Those are the principles that made RIM what they are. So what is WP 7.1 going to have? One example is that when you do a search for a Movie name, it pulls results. Shocker, I know! But those results include content from apps that are installed on the device, like IMDB or Bing Maps. So from a search result you move into the rich web content delivery of the IMDB App for a review, or preview of the film. Other results may include map links to where the movie is playing so maybe you move into Bing Maps for directions and location info. So the experience of the app, is integrated into the OS, so that from a core Mobile OS function like doing a generic search, the OS presents to the user various capabilities to drill into the search results including app usage.
Now I am may be doing a poor job of explaining it. You can find numerous examples of how this works on You Tube. Here is one from MS: YouTube - ‪Joe Belfiore shows off Windows Phone Mango‬‏
My point is that MS is not just trying tally up how many apps that they court developers to build, or how many SDK's they can provide, but rather they are working to figure out how to integrate the content and capabilities of the apps into the OS to deliver a faster, richer experience for the end user. Who knows if they can deliver on this, but the vision has tremendous merit.
I think this follows the Core of what RIM has always tried to do. I am assuming that this is where their Bing Integration is going. I think this would be a strong thing for RIM.
The next step beyond this integration IMHO is to utilize Cloud concepts to make your content portable. QNX's terminal experience should be perfect this. This is where RIM could take the baton from MS and then lap everyone. Here is what I mean...
I want to Start watching a movie on my TV in teh morning eating my cereal. Then leave for work, and continue watching it on my tablet or other mobile device, from the same point without having to FFwd to that point. Then I want to finish watching it later that evening back at my house on a 2nd TV in my home, again picking up right where I left it.
Take the Blackberry Bridge concept and rather than employ it as a stop gap for PIM and NOC integration, but make it a way to truly have your content and media be fully portable. "Bridge" my content via BIS, BES across multiple devices, following my BB ID, and not the Device. So the mobile device becomes a Terminal to the Cloud where the content lives and can be streamed or otherwise delivered to the user via whatever device they want to utilize. In some cases the Mobile Device can act as a portal to better content deliver method via a "Bridge". RIM can Get away from being just a Smart Phone Manufacturer and become more of a Mobile Content Delivery Provider. That content can be consumer media, or Business Proposals or Applications. Make BIS and BES access independent of a device. Let me create a BIS account, upload or purchase content and store it on RIM's cloud, then pull it down to my iPhone via an App (see what i did there?) or to my Google TV, or maybe my Playbook or Black Berry phone, or even my Desktop. Maybe even stream the Movie to my BB which is connected to a mobile network, but watch it on my TV via a Bridge.
Its very conceptual, I know, but RIM has the NOC, and now they have QNX. With the right Media content partnerships (B&N, Amazon, Netflix, etc.) they really could position themselves to deliver not only the integrated app experience MS is driving towards, but the realization of truly portable content that we are grasping at with implementations like iCloud, Google Music Beta, Amazon's Cloud Drive, or Drop Box among others.
Sorry for diverging into the cloud thing, but I think that is where this is all heading. The model of Integrated content delivery in the OS that MS if putting forth in Mango, can just be expanded upon to the Cloud and multiple devices, some mobile, some stationary.
What do you all think?