Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt have been with the IT industry for years, and will no doubt remain for ever. But I think that the mobile world has developed a new form, Fear, Uncertainty and Ignorance.

This thought was prompted by discovering that a prototype Java application that we knocked together for a partner is being sidelined by a WAP application. The reason being that a major operator told them that Java apps had to be built specially for each handset. Aaaaargh. We’ve spent the last few years avoiding that with our Active Provisioning software which does automatic device detection and profiling, no manual involvement.

When we were planning Rapid back in late 2003, I had identified that provisioning was a key issue. I didn’t know then quite how key, but it seemed natural to me that we should build code that will work on almost any phone. I’ve done that for unix workstations, PCs versions and web browsers before, why not handsets? So we did, and we’ve served software to some 400 devices, most of which we’ve never seen.
I hope that with some Special Sauce we can get that project back on the road.
And the people who gave that wrong advice? Well, I suspect that it was FUDI, Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt and Ignorance. Sadly a powerful force. Perhaps today being 06/06/06 we’ll make those the four horsemen of wireless apocalypse.

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