Many companies have released their own set of predictions for 2012, and so have just as many pundits. SiliconANGLE’s Editor-in-Chief Mark Hopkins interviewed several this past week, and discussed the near term future of the mobile industry and consumer platforms.

Mark Phillip of AreYouWatchingThis!?, a sports broadcasting service, talked a great deal about these two areas (see the full video below). He briefly talked about his now four year old startup, which – especially since its launch on Android–offers more than just content but also alerts, filtering and integration with several other services.

He moved on to the topic of openness in the various app ecosystems. He highlighted Microsoft’s success with the Xbox, thanks mainly to the fact it expanded far beyond gaming into home entertainment and other areas long ago. Phillips continued that line of thought, pointing out that a more open app ecosystem – making the APIs more available to developers – would mean even more success for the company. And that may be a trend to look out for in 2012.

Phillip believes that a thriving ecosystem could translate into a great deal of growth for capable providers as well – the ones that operate robust, yet fairly closed platforms (i.e Verizon.) Entry rates should be trimmed in order to attract developers, and the word open needs to be recognized thoroughly – all the way down to customizable app components and free 3^rd party add-on integration.