The Missing Pieces in Android’s Mobile Revolution Play: Service Rendering Servers, VoIP, and Chip Set Vendors

2008-10-22T15:50:00.000-07:00

Google revolutionized and democratized information by becoming THE portal that allows users to find and connect to the websites that they need. Google would not be Google if it restricted our access to only certain websites with specific products and services. Yet, in today's mobile landscape of fragmented and incomplete cell phone products, application services, and communication servers, this is exactly what is happening.

We at TeleSynergy believes that Google, with its GrandCentral and Android play, is uniquely positioned to revolutionize the mobile communication industry with built-in VoIP infrastructure and servers (at home, in the office, and in the cloud) that make Android as the end device and GrandCentral as the portal that allow consumers to freely choose which services and servers they want in their life. When the end users can access a wide range of open source products (mobile phones offered by chip set vendors which leverages the great R&D effort Android has already invested,) open source services (applications built onto Android's platform, fully integrated and working flawlessly with the services from mobile phone operators in the cloud or service rendering servers at home and in the office,) and open source service rendering severs (small home server, the modern-day answering machine, and office phone system that take the place of the expensive “Class 5” switch of the Phone Companies,) then Android's smart phone will truly be THE phone that we all must have.

For a simple analogy, let's say that the mobile phone is the iPOD, the services are like the iTunes', and the servers are like the PCs.

In real life, we choose our iPOD (our cell phone) because it allows us to easily access the iTunes (the service that connects iPOD to a wide variety of content) that we enjoy. The iPOD would be useless without music, movies, pictures, and other applications to use it with! We also love iTunes because it sits easily on our own PC (server) so we have a full control of when and how we connect with the iTunes (services).

However, in the current mobile landscape, the iTunes (services) sits on old traditional mainframes (servers) that only the big companies can build and own. There is only one supplier of the service, and there is no server (PC) that you can easily work with. Can you imagine how annoying it would be if you had to take your iPOD to the mall and wait in line with thousands of other people while they downloaded a limited music selection from a restricted iTunes? (Of course, today’s iTune is not open enough, but that is another story…)

Yet, that is exactly what our mobile phone system is like. We are under the control of the big servers that control the end-services we access. Thus, the innovations in the services are also slowed down because it is difficult for the server to create different services to serve all the unique customer demands. So we are still forced to choose from pre-made packages that never quite meet our needs.

But, just like personal computer became smaller, cheaper, and even better than the best of the old, large, and expensive main-frames, so too have home and office phone servers become more affordable, scalable, and customizable than traditional large servers that sits in telecommunications' companies' infrastructure. The time has come for all people to have a home and office server that they can control with rich features such as one number follow me, advance voicemail, and other applications that are still not available on services from the dominant player of the mobile services.

When people have this home and office server, they need a phone with built-in VoIP SIP standards and well architect application program interface that can connect with their service rendering servers. People make the majority of their mobile phone calls at home and at office, so it only makes sense to use the VoIP phone to replace our current, outdated analog phone systems and cordless phones that sits our own home or office. What this means is that people can have only one phone that they can use for any situation, anytime, anywhere, and with anyone. They will save thousands in their phone bills by using VoIP for phone communications at home and at office. With functionalities like One Phone, Many Numbers and ReachMe Control, they can easily control which calls reach them while in the office, out of town, in the car or at home. They can even block numbers. They can also route incoming calls to a series of phone numbers and devices, ensuring they get the message no matter where they are.

When people are using the Android, they can use the GrandCentral portal to access a large number of various service providers to choose the best option that meets their needs! GrandCentral will work like a portal for Android and its service rendering servers to access more services or “exchange” services. They can use their iPOD to reach thousands of services and applications they would like, and use the iTunes and their home PC's to easily sync and control everything.

To quickly spread the Android platform, Google could take another lesson from the PC industry. It is the small chipset vendors like SiS, VIA, following the step of the pioneer Chips & Technologies, who help flood the market with the PC motherboard which sets the foundation of today’s PC industry.

Google should work with small Wi-Fi and/or MID chip vendors, not the current dominant Cell Phone chipset vendors, to provide a manufacturing kit for the Android phone that can be easily mass-produced or customized. Google can then leverage the supply chain of “Taiwan Electronics, Inc.,”—chip vendor –> manufacturer/OEM/ODM –> sales channel/brand name company—to deliver all flavors of phones and applications to consumers all over the world.

To make this happen, Google also need to do the necessary evil to “Control” and centralize certain service and applications, like Windows did for PRINTER drivers in the early days of PC, to ensure a coordinated flourishing industry.

The age of unlocked phones that can access any services and servers has come. The age of service rendering servers at hands on innovative entrepreneurs who can revolutionize and democratize voice services the way websites transformed data services has come. The age of VoIP mobile phones with global communication capabilities has come. The big servers can no longer force customers to limit their options to a few set packaged products.

Google, more than any company, has the ability to launch this mobile communication revolution where we have a truly open source product, service, and servers that give people the power, the freedom, and the choice they deserve.

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The Missing Pieces in Android’s Mobile Revolution Play: Service Rendering Servers, VoIP, and Chip Set Vendors