In the last few days a lot of new users that bought the brand new Nokia N95 found that some of the functionalities were disable in the operator flavored version of the Symbian 3rd Edition Operating System.

The Internet Telephone application is missing for O2 and T-Mobile customers.

That is not new to the market. Just to notice one simple thing I remember some phone which had the FM radio application disabled due to possible cannibalization risk for music purchases.

The main reason for this is quite obvious: fear.

Operators tend to protect their walled garden as much as possible.

The only things that may change an operator’s attitude towards new, and potentially risky technology, are market pressure or an innovative view of what the market will be in the next few years.

Few operators are willing to take these risks but in this particular case the market forces are so big that they will change their mind very quickly.

Why do I blog this? The mobile phone market is changing at a very fast pace. Operators will need to understand this and be proactive in designing new models to support technology challenges.