Mobile differentiation? Hardly!

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Motorola is betting on Android, RIM says its “ridiculous growth” proves people like Blackberry just fine as it is, and Yahoo is unsure whether or not tablets are mobile devices, according to a panel this morning at MobileBeat 2010 in San Francisco.
The panel, hosted by Kara Swisher from All Things D, centered on strategies for differentiation within mobile platforms,  although what the various firms understood by “differentiation” is  open to debate.

Yahoo’s David Ko, SVP of audience, mobile and local, whined that his firm’s life would be so much easier if there were only fewer platforms and more consolidation going forward, even though he admitted this was unlikely to happen in the near future. “Yahoo wants it to be simpler for developers to make money on the platforms,” he added rather altruistically.
Ko also refused to elaborate on which platforms Yahoo actually found important, or how many the firm thought were enough, despite significant prodding from Swisher. Key platforms, said Ko, depended on geography for Yahoo, with Nokia playing an important role in the developing world, while Motorola was key in South America and RIM/Apple were significant in the US.
Not only did Yahoo complain about the plethora of platforms, Ko also stuck to the firm’s recent mantra of “too many apps,” saying firms had to help users find a better way to whittle down their apps to a manageable number, and have easier app browsing options.
“People are really looking to increase their mobile budgets,” said Ko, noting that Yahoo has a fundamentally different approach to Google; “We want to monetize from our own users,” he said.
Though he admitted that the iPad was one of the “coolest devices” of the year, Ko said he wasn’t yet convinced tablets were a true mobile device. “Tablets are a browse device…a potential mobile device,” he said.

Meanwhile, Motorola’s director of software and services John Ellis wasn’t worried about the problematic proliferation of platforms, with the firm having put most of its eggs in Google’s Android basket.
A couple of years back, Motorola phones could be found running a whopping 17 different platforms, a strategy deemed unsuccessful when the firm realized it had hemorrhaged roughly $5 billion in funds from its mobile sinkhole.
“The complexity for us was monstrous,” Ellis said adding, “we would have internal development paralysis because we were afraid of breaking anything.”
But like a gambler in a rut, Motorola raised the stakes to pull itself out of trouble. “We doubled down on our bets with Google,” said Ellis, adding a perfunctory “it’s a very cool product.”
Asked by Swisher whether it was an entirely sound idea to be so heavily vested in one operating system, Ellis replied “we’re not paranoid about relying on one single company, but we are very conscious about it.”
Meanwhile Motorola isn’t persuaded by the tablet craze either, with Ellis noting that the idea of “touch for the masses” was “a bit of a stretch,” seeing as most of the world’s six billion plus population still worked in manual labor, making dirty, oily fingers a problem.
Last but not least (especially in its own perception of itself) was RIM, with the firm’s SVP of the Blackberry platform Alan Brenner basking in the warm glow of user endorsement. Blakberry’s shipping volumes, he said, reflected that validation. “We’re growing like crazy,” he gushed adding, “our growth numbers show the respect people have for our service.”
As for the competition? Well, according to Brenner, the presence of choice in the smartphone market is “validating for the category.”
“In the last few years you’ve seen an expansion in the services Blackberry has offered developers,” he said, without going into detail. “Our growth continues at a ridiculously fast pace,” he reiterated before concluding that the only thing on RIM’s mind for the future was how to bring “really great experiences” to consumers and employees alike.
Ahhhh….differentiation, that key buzzword in the mobile world, it brings to mind that old scene from Monty Python’s life of Brian:
Crowd (in unison): Yes! We’re all individuals!
Brian: You’re all different!
Crowd (in unison): Yes, we are all different!
Man in Crowd: I’m not.
Another Man: Shhh!