Worst of the Week: What does my phone do?

Hello!
And welcome to our Thursday column, Worst of the Week. There’s a lot of nutty stuff that goes on in this industry, so this column is a chance for us at RCRWirelessNews.com to rant and rave about whatever rubs us the wrong way. We hope you enjoy it!
And without further ado:
So Nokia announced plans to acquire Symbian this week. Nokia said the move would improve Symbian’s position in the market and smooth the process for Symbian application development. Yup, I’m sure everything for developers will now be clear as mud.
See, I think that the landscape for third-party applications in the mobile industry is about as complex as it can possibly be. And I’m amazed that – as far as I can tell – there’s only one company (one!) that is even attempting to make it easier for users to get a hold of third-party applications for their phones (and, by extension, for developers to sell their applications). That company is Handango, which offers a library of applications for various smartphone operating systems.
I mean, seriously, there must be at least a half-dozen major smartphone operating systems out there right now (BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, Palm and Symbian come to mind) and that count does not include Java and BREW platforms. Add everything together and the market for third-party applications for cellphones is both so massive and so complex as to be incomprehensible.
So where does one go to add features and services to a phone? Generally, carriers serve as the touch point for such explorations, but I am highly unimpressed with the information most are providing on the subject. For example, Verizon Wireless just launched the Palm Centro, but I dare you to use Verizon Wireless’ Web site to find out what sorts of third-party applications are available for the device.
Now, I know that this example isn’t really fair. I know that Verizon Wireless’ customer service would be happy to help a Centro user get the most out of his or her phone. But what about that causal shopper who’s simply interested in the topic? Where can they get information on the various third-party applications available for that device? (Handango tells me there are more than 2,000 such applications available!)
So what’s my point? My point is that the wireless industry in general needs to focus on selling software like it has previously focused on selling technology and hardware. Carriers have done a pretty stellar job when it comes to marketing their networks (“Can you hear me now?”) and – with a helping hand from their suppliers – they’ve done a similar job for their devices (iPhone, anyone?). But when it comes to the long and growing list of neat things you can do with your phone, just about everyone on the value chain has been suspiciously silent.
What’s most surprising is that companies like Research In Motion Ltd., Qualcomm Inc., Nokia Corp. and others host conferences for third-party application developers. These conferences serve to encourage and reward developers for their work. I suspect a better use of this time, money and energy would be to put it toward a user conference – let people know what they can do with their phones!
Ignorance is bliss – unless you’re paying $10 per month for a mapping service from your carrier because you just don’t know about the better, free application available from that third-party developer.
OK! Enough of that.
Thanks for checking out this Worst of the Week column. And now, some extras:
–There’s a new startup called Instinctiv that offers an application for iPhone users that claims to predict what type of music they’ll like. What’s funny? Sprint Nextel just launched its iPhone killer, which is called the Instinct. The irony is so ironic.
–FCC Chairman Kevin Martin is moving ahead with a plan to auction off a nationwide spectrum license and require the winner to cover 50% of the total U.S. population within four years and 95% of the population by 10 years. Oh, and the winner would also have to provide free Internet access. In related news, Kevin Martin is crazy.
I welcome your comments. Please send me an e-mail at mdano@crain.com.