Softbank moving towards common mobile OS
By Brian White 
posted May 25th 2007 5:59PM
posted May 25th 2007 5:59PM
Many global wireless carriers are trying on approaches to get the user experience on all those different handsets to be a common one for the customer. As such, some carriers have been toying with the common mobile operating system software that can be deployed on many handset models. Add Japanese carrier Softbank Mobile to this list, as the company wants to make it easier for manufacturers to make those newer multimedia-rich handsets for its network that operate in the customer's hands the same way. To facilitate this, Softbank's adoption of the Portable Open Platform Initiative (POP-i) will provide it access to the OpenKODE API. This adoption will lead Softbank handsets down a common path of standards for advanced graphics and media processing in its mobile phones.[Via mocoNews.net]
As much as I agree with using a common mobile OS would help general cell phone users operating their newly purchased headset...being an enthusiast myself I would love to see headset maker making advanced approach in both hardware and software when new ones come out.
I can't see this happening anytime soon - far too many humongous egos involved.
Hope this works out better than Verizon's common OS. Believe me, I tried the V3c here in China with the local OS (which kind of looks like the Aqua interface of Mac OS X) and an American one with the Verizon OS (I went to a "flea market" to find a replacement for my phone with a faulty headphone jack- when I tested it and it rang through to my phone with a US number I naturally didn't test any of the other network functions). The Chinese OS wins. The red (and nowhere could I find the option to change it), the tabs, the feel... all of it wasn't as intuitive as the Chinese OS was. It could be the fact that the Chinese OS resembles Aqua a little too closely, though (I remember hearing that Alltel used the same OS on their V3c as on Moto's GSM phones; here in China Motorola CDMA phones have a different OS than Moto GSM phones).