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Here are six factors that will determine the likelihood that a mobile Open Source technology will flourish and can be rapidly deployed into a mobile environment

- Standards-based functionality
- Large community of users and vendors Scalability
- Used by relevant business partners
- Commercial and Open Source licensing
- Compatibility and extensibility

1.  Look for functionality that's based on open standards.
As in the networking world, mobile software must be available on all participating devices. An innovation that's non-standard, even if it's very clever and open sourced, won't be a long-run success in the mobile world. Mobile e-mail must be unencumbered by patents and compatible with worldwide protocols.

2.  Look for a large active community surrounding the technology and product.
The size of the community correlates directly with the breadth of devices and health of the commercial ecosystem. Just like they said in Godzilla, size does matter.

3.  Look for scalability.
The mobile market, like the Web, can generate rapid spikes in demand. If a feature like SMS/IM becomes a fad, growth rates can be overwhelming. Not all software, proprietary or Open Source, is designed or tested for scalability. The benefit of a large Open Source community is that other users will have likely pushed the "corner cases" of the code before you even downloaded it.

4.  Check to make sure your Open Source software and tools are supported or used by your company's mobile partners.
Open Source is in the early stages of bridging with the mobile marketplace so not all vendors have adopted it yet (in fact, mobile carriers have been relatively conservative about Open Source). Open Source software that has been used by device makers, network operators, ISVs, ASPs, and enterprises is more likely to work over a wide range of conditions. Also, look for software that's been included in industry testing sessions and multi-vendor compatibility challenges.

5.  Consider the compatibility and extensibility of your Open Source infrastructure.
Open Source per se doesn't guarantee extensibility: it's important to evaluate the architecture and documentation of the APIs. Some very popular Open Source projects have very complex object models and inscrutable APIs. Look for modularity, well-organized APIs, and sufficient documentation to make it extensible.

6.  Make sure there are licensing options available with the Open Source project.
Dual licensing has become quite popular among software vendors. In general, users can choose between using a general Open Source license, such as the GPL, or a commercial license issued by the company that supports the Open Source project. Business realities such as indemnification, patent infringement protection, and 7x24 support mean that mobile companies will have to use commercial licensing. Make sure that the commercial and Open Source licenses in use are a good "impedance match" for the mobile players you're working with.

Open Source Software for Mobile E-mail: A Natural Combination
Because of the market forces and rate of innovation mentioned above, Open Source will be used on the client and server side of mobile e-mail. The SyncML's standards have been endorsed by more than 300 handset vendors and SyncML-compatible handsets will make low-cost push e-mail a reality. The Open Source implementations of the server side of SyncML will mean rapid proliferation and broad compatibility.

The infrastructure behind the SyncML server - mail server, application server, OS - will likely evolve towards Open Source as well. Even though these Open Source subsystems have been available for years, they haven't taken off quickly in the carrier community. That's because carriers have had solid commercial products that are fully interoperable with network standards and the rest of their infrastructure…which evolves slowly.

It's only the pressure of rapid device innovation, combined with the need to allow any device to migrate across any carrier's network that drives the Open Source imperative in the mobile e-mail space. It's at these customer-facing systems that you'll see the most rapid adoption of mobile Open Source software.

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