In a word, wow. Verizon Wireless To Introduce ‘Any Apps, Any Device’ Option For Customers In 2008. They'll allow any device (that's certified at their lab) to run any application on their network. Cool. This is probably in response to the Google phone but also perhaps to help strengthen their CDMA network. The rest of the world uses GSM so devices like the iPhone are designed for that so they can be sold anywhere. In the US, AT&T uses GSM technology but Verizon and Sprint use CDMA. The in the US the CDMA network has more coverage, but also crappier phones. I've also seen speculation that this might help strengthen their bid for 700 MHz spectrum, showing how open they are.
Update: Om Malik has more analysis.
2 comments:
Another reason is that Verizon loses some higher-end customers to Sprint because of their policy about applications and their requirement of BREW over Java. There are quite a few nice apps that run on mid-level phones if they're Java-based, like Opera Mini, Google Local for Mobile, etc. I like having Google maps and Opera's minibrowser in my pocket, so I belong to Sprint for now but have been frustrated by the CDMA carriers' handset policies. This is a nice move, hopefully it will force Sprint to do likewise and open up the market a bit.
If only AT&T had coverage (especially high-speed data) like Sprint does in my area, and if only they weren't evil...
re: my statement about Java... more accurately, I should have said "if they run Java" rather than "java-based" because the phone itself doesn't run on Java, it just has a Java VM for apps.
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