Wireless Watch: Orange backs MeeGo to support its three-screen content strategy Mar 3, 2010 – By Rethink Research
Vodafone is relying on software frameworks that it can define and control, to
create its own mobile web platform and fight off the bitpipe role (see
separate item). But its 360 strategy remains tightly grounded in its pureplay
wireless history, with little outreach to its newer broadband activities. By
contrast, Orange sees its power against the device and internet brands lying
in its ability to span the whole consumer content experience, delivering
consistent interfaces and apps to the ‘three screens’ – the
phone, television and PC. This will require a different set of partnerships,
and has driven the French carrier to be the first operator to go public with
support for the combined Nokia/Intel operating system, MeeGo.
MeeGo was announced at last month’s Mobile World Congress and brings
together the platforms, and developer communities, of two fledgling
Linux-based operating systems, Nokia Maemo and Intel Moblin. Unlike the other
mobile OSs, such as Nokia driven Symbian, MeeGo will extend from the phone to
the PC from day one, with real implementations on both sides of the fence
– Maemo in Nokia’s N900 superphone, Moblin in various Intel-based
netbooks. Android is also positioning for a broad reach, from netbooks down
to embedded devices, and has appeared in a wide range of products, but so
far, the Google-led R&D efforts and the developer ecosystem, are firmly
wedded to the handset.
This could give MeeGo – if it can overcome some of the more obvious
traps lurking for it – a headstart on Android and a different
positioning, which would take advantage of the huge channel, supply chain and
developer reach of its supporters, Intel in the PC world and Nokia in phones.
This is the bet that Orange appears to be taking. It has a history of
supporting many operating systems, where it thinks it can steal a march over
other carriers. It was the first major cellco to commit to Windows Mobile,
which (ironically enough) was one of the only advanced platforms in those
days that was targeted at white label operator branded phones. It is a member
of the LiMO Foundation and offers handsets running all the main software
choices. But MeeGo fits particularly well with its recent strategy of
creating a unified content experience for TV, mobile and broadband
subscribers, to increase ARPU and loyalty via a quad play that is delivered
in software and apps, not just bundles of tariffs.
Orange cross-platform App Shop has been pioneered in France and will support
applications for all the smartphones and operating systems in its portfolio,
as well as Java phones and, in time, IPTV and PCs. App fees are added to
subscribers' phone bills.
MeeGo devices could become key delivery vehicles for the premium end of this
store plan. Like other carriers, Orange needs to strike a balance between
supporting every OS, handset and app to gain reach, and differentiating
itself with optimized user experiences and exclusive content. The latter
elements will be important to enhancing the cellco’s place in the value
chain, but cannot realistically be delivered over every mobile platform
– instead, key handset and OS partners will be drafted in to help make
the carrier offering stand out.
MeeGo is new enough that Orange could gain significant influence over its
direction, even though it has had stormy relations with Nokia in recent
years, particularly over the Finn’s desire to bundle its own content
stores with its high end phones, potentially conflicting with the
carrier’s own offerings. But Nokia is a more flexible friend these
days, as its co-branded version of the X6 smartphone for Vodafone 360 shows.
And much of Orange’s interest will center on Intel, and the partnership
for the PC and netbook market. MeeGo is also expected to be a prime mover in
the evolution of new device formats, at the intersection of the PC and the
phone, by virtue of the contrasting backgrounds of its two owners. It also,
of course, has a clear bridge to the large developer and user base of
Symbian, via Nokia’s Qt cross-platform toolkit.
But Orange insiders are clear that Intel is the real attraction in the MeeGo
tie-up, opening up access to the PC developer community, not always easily
available to cellcos. The carrier will work with Intel increase the
availability of Orange Signature Services, such as Orange TV and Orange Maps,
on MeeGo/Atom products. Yves Maitre, SVP of devices at Orange, commented:
“75% of our customer base has yet to embrace the mobile internet. It is
our role to make sure our customer’s journey into this richer mobile
multimedia environment is simple and easy. Our collaboration with Intel on
the MeeGo software platform will not only ensure a broader choice in terms of
screens and devices, but that customers continue to benefit from a consistent
user experience delivered through Orange Signature services, including a
customized homescreen they trust and recognize, the highest quality network
and secure and simplified billing.”
Orange’s support will be important in MeeGo’s bid to provide a
cross-platform environment for the whole spectrum of consumer electronics,
and to take a lead in the nascent world of multiscreen applications. But
while carriers, and Intel, provide much of the market reach for the new OS,
the greatest burden of proving MeeGo’s multiplatform credentials in
technical terms will fall on Nokia.
This is because the Finn contributes the single most crucial piece of
software to the undertaking, Qt. Acquired with Trolltech, this was one of
Nokia’s most strategically important purchases ever and key to its
quest to become a web software giant. It already spans Symbian, Maemo and
non-Nokia OSs like Windows, and of course the last of these will be important
in crossing the PC-phone divide, given that hybrid systems like Atom will run
a mixture of Windows and Linux-based options. But it has much to prove in the
wild world beyond Nokia – that it can scale upwards and downwards to
support many device categories; and that it brings commercial and usability
benefits to developers. In this, it will have some strong rivals, many of
them also targeting the Atom platform – cross-platform web-based
technologies like Adobe Flash/AIR or the emerging HTML5; well established
Java-based tools; or Microsoft’s own armory, such as Silverlight and
Foundation Class.
The heavy emphasis on Intel, rather than Nokia, in the Orange statements
reflects the carrier’s need to broaden its device range to PC-style
gadgets, a move also being made by other large cellcos like AT&T, as they
chase quad plays, or add-on data plans attached to second, third or fourth
wireless products. But it also highlights the divisions that may damage
MeeGo. Although the logic of a Nokia/Intel axis in the world of PC-phone
convergence is clear, there are also many potential conflicts to address. Not
least, how far MeeGo will limit Nokia’s use of non-Intel silicon in its
advanced device categories (its first use of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon, an
Atom rival, will be in a conventional phone, not a new-style gadget, for
instance). And on the flip side, how open MeeGo will be to Nokia competitors.
LG has already promised that its upcoming Atom-based handset, the GW990, will
run MeeGo and this will be an important test device both for the OS and for
Intel’s processor, in its first outing in a true phone. But if LG
deploys MeeGo effectively, Nokia could find the software platform that it
regarded as a spearhead for its own high end renaissance becoming a
competitive tool for one of its most dangerous rivals.
Commercial Chinese walls will have to exist within MeeGo around such
relationships, and it remains to be seen how far these will stretch out to
hinder or divide the combined developer ecosystem. Both companies will need
to accept that MeeGo will gain influence by addressing their rivals as well
as their own product plans, but this is never an easy balance to strike, as
has been seen in the history of Symbian – another multivendor OS
dominated by Nokia. And they cannot afford to lose too much control, a
dilemma shared with Google in Android – although MeeGo, like Moblin, is
hosted by the Linux Foundation, its governance is very much that of a
benevolent dictatorship.
Intel’s embedded Atom efforts stalling?
Of course, on the Intel side, part of the success of MeeGo will depend on
Atom making a parallel shift to become a truly cross-device processor,
finding a place in phones and embedded devices as well as netbooks and
notebooks. Although Intel has made significant progress in cutting power
consumption, and got Atom into its first smartphone, its program to create
systems-on-chip for even smaller, cheaper devices, in partnership with
Taiwanese foundry TSMC, appears to have hit a roadblock.
Intel moved away from its policy of making its own chips last year when it
engaged TSMC as a partner for the ultra-low power Atom range destined for
consumer and machine-to-machin devices with embedded wireless. But the giant
admitted last week that it had no immediate plans to bring to market any Atom
chips manufactured by TSMC, following reports in the New York Times that the
alliance was facing lack of demand for its SoCs. Robert Crooke, general
manager of Intel's Atom and SoC development group, said the firms would
continue to work together but spokesperson Bill Kircos was quoted by EETimes,
saying: "It's been difficult to find the sweet spot of product,
engineering, IP and customer demand to go into production."
Intel said last March that it would port unspecified Atom x86 processor cores
to TSMC’s platform, including processes, IP, libraries and design flows
– the first deal under which the giant would transfer a processor
technology to a foundry. This indicated the importance of harnessing
TSMC’s expertise to help step up its assault on the strongholds of the
ARM processor design, in mobile and embedded devices, and so reduce reliance
on the PC market for growth.
The x86 architecture has made some inroads into embedded systems, notably by
ousting PowerPC form the medical imaging space, and the embedded group now
makes $2bn a year in revenue. But this will be a slow process, with major
contracts taking a long time to finalize, and having to overcome the natural
suspicion of partners looking to work with a dominant player like Intel. In
addition, Intel has little experience of marketing cores and IP, as opposed
to whole processors, and its technology, despite the vast x86 ecosystem,
would still present some risk to new partners.
Other reasons why the TSMC SoC initiative may prove a slow burner include
reportedly high royalty charges and/or IPR restrictions compared to ARM. The
IPR issue is the most thorny one for Intel once it opens up to a broader
customer base and a foundry. It has invested billions in developing its
unique technologies and defending its patents, and so many observers
speculate that, in order to protect itself from x86 cloning, it is putting
heavy restrictions into its licenses, as well as limiting the amount of
information it discloses about its core. This would contrast with the
detailed documentation available to users of the ARM or Mips cores. The fear
of making its best IP openly visible could even mean TSMC is using a
different, and perhaps inferior, implementation.
Wireless Watch: Orange backs MeeGo to support its three-screen content strategy
