French newspaper “Le Figaro” — as noted by “Mobile Business Briefs” (http://www.mobilebusinessbriefing.com/article/orange-t-mobile-telefonica-vodafone-set-for-handset-os-talks) — reports that Stephane Richard CEO of France Telecom-Orange, has invited the heads of Deutsche Telekom, Telefonica and Vodafone to discuss the possible creation of a common platform for mobile devices.
The talks are set to take place on Oct. 8 in Paris. “Mobile Business Briefs” says they’re motivated by a view that Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android operating systems have become a “Trojan horse” for these companies to establish their own relationships with mobile customers, reducing the significance of the operators in the value chain.
While operators globally have moved away from a closed ecosystem to support products and services from Apple, Google and other companies from the computing and Internet industries, these new partners have been gradually increasing their influence in the mobile space, at the expense of operators and their traditional ownership of the relationship with subscribers, the article adds.