>
>Hm. So you don't have to allow people to be able to develop and run
>arbitrary programs in order to qualify as a "smart phone"? It seems to
>me that if that's the case, phones are hardly likely to replace PDAs:
>just take a look at the difference in software available for a Palm
>device and any keitai.
the ability to develop and run arbitrary programs on a keitai is a good
point. The amount of software for servers and for the client (Java/Brew) is
growing at a fast clip including those for business applications. Based on
the brochures I've received from the operators I would say there are more
than 100 types of business server software available now and the fastest
growing segment is for Java/Brew applications. Of course, this is nothing
compared to what's available on PDAs and the ability to freely develop and
run programs, if allowed, could be a major driver of this process. It
appears that Japanese (and also foreign) operators will continue to control
this process (partly due to concerns about viruses) just as they have done
with content. Does anybody see changes in this area?
Cheers,
Jeff Funk
Received on Tue Oct 21 02:00:14 2003