At risk of turning this blog into one that seems to solely deal with our enthusiasm for Open Standards to deal with mobile messaging trends, this week saw Isode take a stand at the Inbox/Outbox exhibition in London.
Whilst we used the stand to promote all of Isode's products, our seminar talk 'Mobile Messaging: greater choice and lower costs through Open Standards' once again highlighted some of the features of M-Box, our IMAP message store due to be released shortly.
It was an appropriate approach to take, especially considering that in terms of stand space the entrance to the show was dominated by stands from O2 and Blackberry who had chosen to celebrate their partnership by using identical stands and running joint seminars.
We talk quite a lot about the advantages of Open Standards but those advantages are not just technical. From a marketing perspective I'm puzzled by the willingness of companies like O2 to cede control of their brand by diluting it with references to a proprietary partner - often a precondition of the partnership. It may work well in the short term whilst the proprietary technology is fashionable but if their image suffers in the future, even in an area totally unrelated to your collaboration with them, then you suffer as well.
Will
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