The Familiar Perils Of The Mobile Ecosystem

I had not heard the word 'ecosystem' since school biology lessons.  But all of a sudden, someone at a networking event dropped the 'e' word and these days, no discussion about mobile communications takes place without the word 'ecosystem' being uttered in almost every sentence.   An ecosystem is normally defined as a community of living things helping each other out (some more willingly than others) in a relatively contained environment.  The point of an ecosystem is that completely different organisms – each with different purposes and priorities – are able to co-exist in a more or less harmonious but eclectic way.  The parallel between that description and what is happening in the mobile space is evident.  Mobile communications have evolved around us to adopt a life of their own and separate from traditional desktop based computing and web browsing.  Through the interaction of very different players, our experience of communications on the go via smart devices has