• Business Week, Monday, October 29, 2007 11 AM

Ever wonder why cell phone software pales in comparison to PC and Web-based software? Creating software for cell phones is neither fun nor lucrative because of the restrictions (i.e. rev share agreements) wireless carriers, handset makers and software companies impose on third-party software development. On the Web, software developers are clamoring to become part of Facebook's "open" movement.

Who will save consumers from cell phone prison? Google and Apple. The latter has already taken the giant step of letting outside developers create programs on its popular iPhone, which runs on a familiar Mac OS. However, developers can't expect to keep all the revenue, like they could through Facebook or MySpace. The hope is that Apple will cut them a better deal.

Google, meanwhile, is set to take the openness idea a step further on its gPhone mobile operating system. It is expected to bundle the new OS with its familiar applications, making the mobile iterations inter-operable with the Web-based software-including anything created through the Maka-Maka initiative--while allowing third parties to create software for the gPhone, too.

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