The walled garden’s days are numbered. According to a new Deloitte survey of wireless industry executives, the closed business models for delivering mobile content and applications will fade away in the next three years and be replaced by open mobile content business models. In fact, most of those executives feel the future of their service provider businesses depends on completing that transition. more

Verizon Wireless (NYSE:VZ, NYSE:VOD) and Motorola (NYSE:MOT) today took the wraps off their first Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) device and the first to run Android’s 2.0 software. The official Droid unveiling took place in New York City this morning, but Chicago executives held a meet-and-greet with the Droid following announcement of its Nov. 6 release date. My colleague Kevin Fitchard and I had an opportunity to attend and were duly impressed with the device. more

180Squared, a start-up formed by former Microsoft Mediaroom architects in April 2008 to focus on billing/operational support systems or IPTV deployments based on Mediaroom is moving beyond its Microsoft beginnings to be platform-agnostic. The company today also announced two customers using its product line geared towards rapid IPTV installation, integration and deployment, Surewest Communications and Reservation Telephone Cooperative. more

Social games have become increasingly popular online as the user demographic has expanded and social networks like Facebook have added built-in gaming options. Virtual goods with real price tags are a key component of these games, a market that Think Equity forecasts to double to $1 billion in revenues next year. Mobile payments vendor Obopay today announced a mobile payments platform to help merchants cash in on this gaming movement, allowing users to make seamless in-game purchases. more