[JDEV] Nokia Series 60 and Wireless Village

[Tijl Houtbeckers]

"Richard Dobson" <richard at dobson-i.net> wrote on 24-12-2002 23:53:41:
>
>> >Series 60 Terminal Software Suite
>> >http://www.nokia.com/nokia/0,5184,2802,00.html
>>
>> This doesn't have to do much with Wireless Village, it's just a set 
>> of API's that *could* be used for creating a Wireless Village 
>> messenger (or a Jabber Messenger).
>
>Urm from reading it it appears to have a lot to do with wireless 
>village since it says "Wireless Village-based Instant Messaging".

quote:
"Examples of coming features include Digital Rights Management, 
Wireless Village-based Instant Messaging and Terminal Management." 

More intresting (cause it actually excists) is the Wireless Village 
J2ME API, but so far none of the manufactorers have chosen to include 
it in with their J2ME stacks, including Nokia. 

>> >So I think we need to start seriously looking at Wireless Village
>> >interoperability.
>>
>> Wireless Village is not dead. But it didn't become what many hoped it
>> would be. In fact, it's just another protocol out there. There's no
>> reason you can't use XMPP instead, or SIP/SIMPLE etc. Most of the
>> operators and manufactorers are partnering with a non-open network
>> (mostly AOL and MSN), or use Jabber or something like OpenWave.
>> Wireless Village is *not* THE "default" or "standard" way of
>> interacting with mobile devices, merely one way.
>
>It might be just another protocol but it is what has been chosen as the
>instant messaging protocol for series 60 apparently 

Note your "apperently".
Series 60 is a *very* open platform, one could easily add a Jabber 
messenger instead of a wireless village messenger. 

>so it likely will 
>become the default and standard way of doing instant messaging on 
>mobiles since it is being supported by Nokia (the number one mobile 
>maker), and several of the other major mobile makers that have 
>licenced series 60. 

Let's look at the Nokia series 60 devices that are outthere (the 7650) 
and the ones that have been officially announced. Can you see one with 
wireless village? In fact can you find *any* phone that has it? 

Then look at Motorola (AIM), Siemens (ICQ), and smaller . Can you find 
a phone from one of the major brands with WV on it? 


>> IMHO XMPP is a much better standard then wireless village. However 
>> espc. 
>>  for new JEPs people tend to be very "Desktop" oriented. It's 
>>  important to keep bloat out or jabber and think beyond just the 
>>  desktop clients. 
>
>Yes I certainly agree that XMPP/Jabber is better but Nokia seems to 
>have made their mind up so there is not that much that can probably be 
>done about that now no matter what we think, so instead of just saying 
>effectively "ours is better and they should be using it so lets not 
>think about it" I think we do need to think about it.
>

All the major manufactorer brands have stepped back from very activly 
promoting WV and decided to leave this to the operators and independant 
content providers. 

What have the operators done then? Either they go with one of the major 
network like MSN (eg. Verizon, KPN, Orange SPV). Openwave and other 
companies with simulair solutions are used by some, and some go with 
Jabber even (France Telecom, Sprint). 

Who has commited to WV?

>> As for interoperability.. that's nice to say but it's not like Jabber
>> that you can just connect to any server on the network. So even if
>> there's an operator that will use this, then there still has to be an
>> agreement to let a jabber server or all jabber servers connect. Espc.
>> if they already have a deal with eg. AOL this will not come easy.
>
>I dont see what AOL has to do with Wireless Village? But I would 
>expect the Wireless Village community would welcome Jabber 
>interoperability as it will allow their users to communicate with a 
>much greater audience. 

Well, AOL, much like the rest of the IM/telecom world is also in WV. 
Everyone is in it. But that's not the point, the point is that if an 
operator wants to use AOL's IM system(s) (wether they use WV or their 
own solution for that) they'll have a deal with AOL. They won't connect 
it to Jabber just because they can. 

There have been some technical implementations, but has anyone actually 
commited to a roll-out? Don't hold your breath for too long.. 

I don't think WV will not be used at all. But it's definatly not the 
standard. Just that Nokia has a few product out doesn't meant it will 
become the standard either. It's a whole new telecom world outthere, 
and all the platforms are *open*, and Symbian/Series 60 is the most 
open of them all. This means *those who provide the content and promote 
it to the user are completly free in their choice of technology*. This 
can be an operator (most likely), or another content provider (less 
likely), or even a manufactorer (rare, and surthenly not Nokia!). 

I'm not saying WV won't be used, I'm not saying interoperatability is 
bad (though I wonder who wants to implement this, since it has no 
userbase at all!). I'm just saying that the conclusion that WV is going 
to be the standard just cause there's some series 60 software is 
*wrong*, and that overlooking the fact that WV did not reach it's 
initial goal is a mistake. 

Right now Jabber is not just the better protocol, it's also more 
prefered than WV by the operators so far. 

>> BTW: the Wireless Village discussion took place on SJIG, not JDEV.
>
>Should we be moving this discussion over to standards-jig then?

It's a bit too late now perhaps :) I think most on SJIG read JDEV too 
anyway? But if you seriously think about making a WV implementation (if 
you still feel the need to) SJIG would be the better place I suppose. 


-- 
Tijl Houtbeckers
Java/J2ME/GPRS Software Engineer @ Splendo
The Netherlands