Just when we thought the question "which platform shall I develop for" had narrowed to a two horse Android/iOS race, with Android's rise and rise over the course of the last year seeming to set the tone for the future, the ever-inventful mobile industry has changed things around on us again.
Following the turn of the year BlackBerry 10 has finally arrived, and it looks as though people like it. Mozilla's Firefox OS looks interesting and Tizen brings together various earlier threads - both appear to be a kind of antidote to the Web vs Native debate. Very interestingly, to my mind, a further new player in the space is Canonical with their Ubuntu Mobile and Ubuntu Tablet editions.
Just when people thought it was down to a two horse race, why, all of a sudden, are we seeing a sudden blossoming of new offerings? What are the motivations of those who are bringing them to market? The old mix looks like it is well and truly being shaken up. But how will the new players win over a public that may by now just about have got to grips with "It's Apple or Android". Crucial to the success of all of these players will be partnering with operators, who must constitute their major channel to market.
Most of us would agree that innovation is good, yet most of us would also agree that fragmentation is bad. New entrants to the market necessarily means more fragmentation, or does it? Is this just a spring flowering or are we witnessing a enduring change to the market? Will one or more of the Davids successfully take on the Goliaths, or is there in fact room for them all to live together? If so, what are the consequences for product platform choices?
Supported by our lovely friends over at Canonical, which is of course the company behind Ubuntu (they actually know a thing or two about being disruptors in the cloud and computing industries) we'll be examining these issues and more in our event on July 15th. They'll be demonstrating Ubuntu on Tablets and Phones … so this is your chance to get your hands on this exciting innovative user experience … but if you can't wait for that check out the videos: phone and tablet.
Our panel for the evening will be chaired by Geoff Blaber, @geoffblaber, of CCS Insight, and he will be joined by:
Alex Sinclair - CTO at GSMA
David Wood @dw2 - Principal at Delta Wisdom and formerly the prime mover behind Symbian
Andreas Constantinou @andreascon - Managing Director at Vision Mobile
Victor Palau @victorpalau - VP of Phone and Hyperscale Delivery at Canonical
Christian Heilmann @codepo8 - Principal Developer Evangelist (HTML5/Open Web) at Mozilla Corporation
Agenda
6.00pm Doors Open
6.30pm Introductory remarks by Victor Palau
6.35pm Presentation of Developer Economics 2013 by Andreas Constantinou
6.45pm Panel Discussion led by Geoff Blaber
8.00pm Networking and Demonstrations of Ubuntu Phone and Tablet Editions
9.30pm Close
As usual the event is free to attend but registration is required - and as usual the event will take place at the CBI Conference Centre at Centre Point, right above Tottenham Court Road tube station. Entry via the doors under the bridge formed by the building itself.
Registration is now open at momolo-2013-07-15.eventbrite.co.uk
