Most techies embrace the idea of choice in mobile phones and, for the most part, choice is what we have in both hardware and software. There is RIM with BlackBerry, Apple with the iPhone OS, Android, Symbian, Windows Mobile and more. Is too much choice a bad thing, however? Verizon believes so, and a recent statement by its CEO indicates that they want less operating systems for mobile phones. Without naming names, Lowell McAdam says that of the nine or so operating systems Verizon currently uses on mobile devices, they really only need three or four.
He went on to say that over the next few years, they hope to reduce that larger profile and slim down to just a small handful. If that is the case, what sort of metrics will define what operating systems they carry? And, perhaps more importantly, will other vendors follow suit? We can be sure that companies Apple, RIM, Microsoft and Google would never let themselves be pushed out of a market, so you can imagine it's the smaller players that will get shoved aside.
Many people don't care what OS they run on their phone and a large majority may not even know. What they do care about, however, is what programs run on their device and what functionality it offers. Could a reduction in the number of operating systems available actually increase the pool of software for them and make new functionality a priority?