Mobile Platforms & Diversification - how ~they~ are killing mobile developer productivity & profits

Samsung recently announced Bada OS with much fanfare & a competition - Yay!

This got me thinking yet again as to why any developer should support / build for it? What is the killer feature which will make me want to invest in building apps for this platform? Apart from the fact that it has a large market share - nothing. I am not trying to second guess Samsung's intentions in bringing Bada to life - I mean rather than choosing from choice list of OpenSource OS choices these days (Android, Symbian & Maemo ...) - they probably know what they are doing. As long as a mobile manufacturer provide ways to port our existing apps using a standards compliant platform we are game.

Diversification of Mobile Platforms today is killer of mobile developer's productivity (& profit). We are forced to choose a platform and stick with it - I guess this will start becoming a common place & the best platform will eventually win. Many developers will only focus their efforts on one platform. Btw: It already started happening.

I am more than happy to support any platform which comes to play. So long as I can find developers for the given language needed for the platform, the platform is standardised (eg. Java) & deploying/porting the app to a platform does not involve rewriting it from scratch. 

Between guys, Qt is one amazing platform - played around quite a bit and I have to say I am impressed. Hope iPhone would one day be fully supported along with Symbian & Maemo. Also fingers crossed as to whether Bada would be on the list of supported platforms for Qt.

Open Source Phones are the future

Reading the piece Why Open Source Phones Still Fail by Sascha Segan 

I felt I am reading something similar to this Sky is Falling.. Scenario:

The article provided a pretty distinctively limited view of the way things work i.e. US != World, Nokia's main market atleast for now is Europe / Asia / Africa - thats where it makes its billions from and that's where many of its devices are aimed at. 
nokia-india.jpg
(Photo Courtesy: eggstrategy.com)

I felt that view with which the article built over is the fact of failure of OpenMoko - but in my opinion there are many platforms which haven't seen the light of the day in US, but play a major role in rest of the world. Take Symbian for example (which is now OpenSource Platform by the way).

Coming back to Maemo (N900 runs Maemo) / Android - Both are amazingly powerful platforms, given time they will be the leading the edge soon. 

Square Payment Service & Security

Square Payment Service looks slick and amazingly intuitive. That said, its still unclear as to what protection it provides to the users of this service - I don't mean the retailers.

Imagine a scammer can easily spoof someone into entering their details - also with so much ease - from what I have read/seen I feel there is no obvious robustness in this particular system. If this reaches masses, you can imagine Credit Card scam can actually be possible that much more easily.

Again, I have to say its way too early to say anything about this service. I just hope Square Up guys make it more obvious as to the security they provide to the End-User.