That Didn’t Take Long!

We had alluded to the fact that third party VoIP modules on smart phones won’t last long, here. Well it looks like it is just about there. The folks at Google and Microsoft have blinked. Don’t discount the Telcos they have the best legal talent that phone call money can buy. –

surrender_itsgregIf you think Google, Microsoft and Apple are bad-ass, cutthroat, take-no-prisoner companies, you should meet the nation’s wireless carriers, who have collectively convinced those intensively competitive software giants to cripple their products.

Need any more proof that the nation’s four largest wireless carriers - AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile - have too much control over the airwaves, what phones you can use and what applications you can run on them?

Look no further than Microsoft’s release this week of its 12 commandments for developers (.pdf) working on apps for the upcoming Windows Mobile 6.5 OS and for its Windows Mobile Marketplace — it’s upcoming iPhone app store competitor. Number 4 rule? Don’t make apps that let users make phone calls using the mobile phone carrier’s data connection.

That restriction joins Microsoft to Google and Apple, all of which now all block true VOIP apps in their online marketplaces where users can quickly buy trusted apps from third-party developers. That means no Skype, or at least only Skype when your iPhone has a WiFi connection, or only Skype-Lite which uses your phone’s minute plans.

This was to be expected from the commercial side of the IT industry. I hope at this point Google fully understands exactly WHY they needed that 700mhz spectrum now. You can rest assured that the smaller smartphone development houses won’t take up this cause. They don’t have the financial-legal wherewithal to go into protracted court combat.

Nope the challenge will come, if at all, from overseas. Some Indian dude will whip up an app for Android that will use the data channel for voice traffic. It will leak out and take hold for a certain segment of the population. The problem will only be resolved if such a piece of software were to come on like gangbusters. Like it started on 500 smartphones today, its on 5,000,000 by the end of a month.

So much for open competition.

Linky.