Extra Features vs. Native Look Moves the Mobile Arena
Like with any other success story in the IT world, whenever a start-up or enterprise comes up with a really good and pioneering idea, there will always be at least half a dozen others who’ll come up with their own version of it, and outmatch the original architect in its own backyard. This time, this is happening in the mobile arena, on both the Android and iPhone fronts.
Kicking off the fight is the new, 3rd party fight is Firefox 4 Beta for Android (and for the somewhat less notable Nokia 900). Introduced after Google’s integration of its own native Chrome with the OS, Mozilla’s counter attack is a hit directed straight into Google’s face, trying at expanding and increasing its browser’s popularity, consequently tramping good ol’ Chrome.
As quoted from Reuters:
“Apple has based a great deal of its iPhone 4 marketing blitz around its so-called FaceTime video calling technology.
But Yahoo is about to challenge Apple for the mobile video calling crown, with plans to bring video chat to iPhones and Android-based phones via its popular Yahoo Messenger instant messaging service.”
The free and cross-platform Yahoo messenger app with built-in video calling serves the same goal as Mozilla’s faster, handier Firefox on Android as a very effective means of spreading the word (and the app) throughout as many markets and users as possible. The native environments are now no more than just native environments.
From a platform prspective, it’s a necessary part of the growth and domination processes. Firefox 4 has been pushing a quick release schedule for PCs, and has been moving into the mobile realm one step at a time. Yahoo’s even lagging a bit on its mobile chat upgrade, with interest building from Skype and others. These types of apps fill in gaps here and there, but also present strategic opportunities for apps to gain direct consumer insight, and that’s what the mobile market is really all about.
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