SiRF Technologies and Openwave have formed a strategic relationship to integrate SiRFstudio location capabilities with Openwave’s AJAX-based application development platform.

This is an example of “almost right” that has plagued Openwave for the last few years. Openwave has wisely integrated AJAX support into their platform, created a mobile widget platform, and made that platform available across a wide-range of handsets. They sell this “solution” to operators and device manufacturers.

What Openwave has not done, either because of a business decision or ignorance, is truly executed on a solutions-based strategy. As they say in the press release, the existing MIDAS solution enables the manufacturers and the operators to “create the next-generation of innovative location-based mobile widgets and services”.

The problem is that most operators and manufacturers don’t develop solutions or services (in most markets), they partner with other third parties. In essence, Openwave is telling their customers to buy our technology and then find a third party to build something using our technology. They are not truly offering a solution that the operator can immediately take to market and extract value.

A wiser approach would be to bundle a true “go to market” solution with the standards-based technology. This allows the operator to immediately exact value while retaining the ability to expand the value or multi-source in the future.