the NYT recently suggested that 2008 will be the year of the cell phone because all that’s transpired in 2007.
when we look forward to “open” platforms and networks in the coming years, we should first look back and credit apple for creating these opportunities. it was the iphone that made the mobile web seem cool for consumers and helped increase traffic to mobile website like ours.
as the iphone became hugely successful, the non-iphone carriers found themselves unexpectedly on the outside-looking-in. all of a sudden, none of these carriers wanted to be excluded from another iphone-type situation (i.e. well known brand like google creating the next big thing in mobile) – and so participating in google’s open handset alliance became a competitive necessity. then before you know it, verizon said it was going to open up its network.
so thank you apple for helping to open up an entire industry with one phone…
