This year seems to see the arrival of interesting newcomers in the mobile phone market. Apple has started an iPhone that also happens to be an iPod, and Google has recently announced that they will participate to some kind of a gPhone, which includes Google’s client applications. This is nice, but if we think as Apple solely as a music provider, both companies are server-side companies rather than client-side companies, and they should be interested in what happens on the SIM.
With Next Generation Java Card, SIM cards will soon incorporate a Web server, and they will remain a good place to store and process sensitive data such as music licenses. Shouldn’t that mean that Google and Apple should get interested into what goes into these cards? Most likely, yes. But beyond that, we can see the differences between their business models.
Apple is in the proprietary business more than the open source business. As such, there is no obvious interest for them to get involved in the development of specific SIM cards. However, there could be a strong interest to design a specific application that deals with their specific DRM, and possibly interacts with payment, rights transfer, and many other things.
Google is in a different game. Owning a SIM could be of interest for them, allowing them to get a secure local Google server on every gPhone. There are many possible uses for such a secure local server, whether or not the phone is currently connected. In addition, Google has shown interest in bandwidth, although there is no direct clue that they want to resell that bandwidth. Of course, it is likely that such a move would not be that popular with everybody, and at least with network operators and with other application providers. But I guess that the G-guys are getting used to being unpopular, as more and more people have doubts about their Don’t be evil motto.
Now, if we think about it from our smart card point of view, a gCard could be take many forms: in its maximal instantiation, it could be an open source implementation of a Java Card-based card, which would be considered as an act of war by card manufacturers around the world. More subtly (reasonably?), the open source part could be limited to a specific configuration and set of libraries and applications. In that configuration, the gCard could be acclaimed by the industry. In order to be a success, the Next Generation Java Card will need success stories and killer applications, and then, everybody loves Google …
Google seems not to see the added value described by you or they want to wait and see. As Nokia points out (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7082414.stm) Google is inexperinced in this field and users want a stable operating system. they’re even more inexperienced when it comes to smart cards software. Google’s core business is advertising, and any secure element in the mobile phone would restrict it. That’s why they try to get open frequencies and turn the mobile telco market upside down. A further indication is that there are no smart card manufacturers participating the open handset alliance (http://www.smartinsights.net/smart-card/?2007/11/08/101-google-to-launch-android), and the major semiconductor companies for secure smart card controllers are also missing (Samsung is listed under handset manufacturer, http://www.openhandsetalliance.com/oha_members.html).
So sorry to say it, but I think Google has no interest.. Maybe companies like eBay, Apple or Amazon in terms of DRM..
You pointed out yourself that Google is new to this thing. It is true that they have no interest today, but it doe not means that they will not learn.
If Google gets hit by a privacy issue at some point, smart cards may start looking interesting, at least as a way to (apparently) give power back to the end user, and protect their private information. Correctly used, it can work very well with Google’s business model.
But then, I don’t think that anything will happen in 2008 in that area …