The “Break it Down” Blog

Brad Agdern sends in information about Sprint “soft launching” it’s XOHM (WiMax) service in the Chicago, Washington and Baltimore markets.

Unfortunately this doesn’t suddenly mean your Sprint phone will be running at WiMax speeds as support for XOHM requires new devices. Sprint has XOHM-enabled devices for the end of the year and dual-mode CDMA/XOHM phones next year.

With the announcement of Google’s Android platform, Sprint’s name got a lot of play in combination with Google. There are rumors floating around that these high-bandwidth moves are an attempt to court Google into a more official relationship. Then of course you have the surprise-announcement from Verizon that they would be opening up their entire network for 3rd party devices (as long as they were certified by Verizon).

Then you take a look at the description of the XOHM “ecosystem”:

and see that service and sales are a huge part of the new network’s design. Combine that information with Google’s dominance in the advertising arena (with the Verizon news) and I think the writing on the wall is pretty clear: Open networks, advertising and service sales channels are the future.

So +1 for cool devices, and -1 for being swamped with “services” for the next 5 years as everyone tries to figure out how to make money with these new ultra-convenience markets.

You can already buy your music on the run on your iPhone, but what about GPS? Maybe you just took a trip to Italy… need a map for it? $4.99… you just drove into Westbrook, NC… wanna find a good place to eat? Pickup the Zagat Resturaunt Guide for $1.99 for that town… you get the idea.

I think Sony had this all figured out years ago when they started working on Home… the whole idea there is to throw you in a sandbox, give you a virtual identity, then nickel-and-dime you to death on “extras” and services. Welcome to the future.