Think of the first time you saw an iPhone in action. Or the first time you browsed the Internet or the first PC you bought. What did you think? Most were probably blown away. We intuitively knew that we held something transformational.
Remembering when the Palm Pilot came out in the late ‘90s, I couldn’t imagine anyone having a need for a device that provided more than the basics – phone directory, addresses, scheduler and date book, checklists and maybe notes. Now you can download an app for your iPhone called Shazam that identifies songs from music – one of some 100,000 Application offerings for the iPhone. Clearly, here to date, the iPhone platform has been quite remarkable. And it’s for this reason that I recently purchased the Droid phone for two of my kids; not an iPhone! The obvious question is ‘why not’?
I purchased the Droid because of a simple fact: Droid Phones are built on the Android Operating System. Google acquired Android, Inc. in 2005. The technology is a mobile device platform powered by the Linux Kernel. The technology license is Apache – a commercially friendly open source license. And for anyone who reads Chapter 9 in Paper Kills 2.0, you’ll understand why I think it’s a good investment and strategic in nature.
Apple’s business model typifies the old way of doing business. Their operating system is based on Darwin, the same proprietary operating system core that is found in the Macintosh operating system. The software development kits to write applications for the iPhone were first released in March 2008. Developers get a cut of any app that is sold through the Apple App Store BUT Apple controls all the distribution and the developer is prohibited from selling the application anywhere else. For anyone to use apps not offered through the Apple App Store, the users must change the device firmware through ‘jailbreaking’ to permit its use. Needless to say, this is frowned upon by Apple. Contrast the Apple model with the Google model that permits its Android operating system to be used on any mobile device. The software hooks are open and distribution is unrestrained. Certainly Apple has a great name and makes the sexiest devices on the planet but I think they’ll need to rethink their model. Gartner’s Ken Dulaney seems to agree as he predicts that the Android OS will overtake iPhone in global market share by 2012.
From where I sit, health information exchanges are the next wave of innovation that is going to change healthcare. If we do it right, these communication platforms for healthcare will spawn applications that we can’t even conceive of today. To promote this ‘new economy’, we must embrace openness and transparency. From a software development perspective, this is code-speak for ‘open source’. The healthcare industry can learn from the macroeconomic movements in other industries. Just look at Google. And as Gomer Pyle would say….”Shazam!”
Tim Elwell is Vice President of Misys Open Source Solutions (“MOSS”), LLC, leads the marketing efforts for Open Health Tools and is a Commissioner for CCHIT.
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