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2010-02-16, 01:37:23
Leading Operators Unite to Unleash Global Apps Potential
Mobile World Congress, Barcelona – 15 February 2010 Twenty-four leading telecommunications operators have formed an alliance to build the world’s first open platform that delivers applications to all mobile phone users. For customers, the initiative will mean a broader choice of innovative applications and services available on a wider choice of handsets than ever before.
América Móvil, AT&T, Bharti Airtel, China Mobile, China Unicom, Deutsche Telekom, KT, mobilkom austria group, MTN Group, NTT DoCoMo, Orange, Orascom Telecom, Softbank Mobile, Telecom Italia, Telefónica, Telenor Group, TeliaSonera, SingTel, SK Telecom, Sprint, Verizon Wireless, VimpelCom, Vodafone and Wind are committed to create an ecosystem for the development and distribution of mobile and internet applications irrespective of device or technology.
Together, these operators have access to over three billion customers around the world. The GSMA and three of the world’s largest device manufacturers – LG Electronics, Samsung and Sony Ericsson – fully support this initiative.
The Wholesale Applications Community aims to unite a fragmented marketplace and create an open industry platform that benefits everybody – from applications developers and network operators to mobile phone users themselves.
The alliance’s stated goal is to create a wholesale applications ecosystem that – from day one – will establish a simple route to market for developers to deliver the latest innovative applications and services to the widest possible base of customers around the world. In the immediate future the alliance will seek to unite members’ developer communities and create a single, harmonised point of entry to make it easy for developers to join.
"The GSMA is fully supportive the Wholesale Applications Community, which will build a new, open ecosystem to spur the creation of applications that can be used regardless of device, operating system or operator," said Rob Conway, CEO and Member of the Board, GSMA. "This approach is completely in line with the principles of the GSMA, and in fact leverages the work we have already undertaken on open network APIs (OneAPI). This is tremendously exciting news for our industry and will serve to catalyse the development of a range of innovative cross-device, cross-operator applications."
Jonathan Arber, Senior Research Analyst at independent analyst house, IDC, said: "Attracting and retaining developers is vital for any application store offering to succeed. However, mobile application developers currently face a high level of fragmentation in the industry, in terms of both technology platforms, and individual operators’ working practices. Developers want to meet the largest possible addressable market, as efficiently and painlessly as possible, and the Wholesale Applications Community initiative can meet these criteria by providing a simple, single point of access to a large number of operator storefronts. The initiative should also help to drive uptake of existing, open standards among developers, operators and manufacturers, thereby reducing fragmentation and benefiting the whole industry."
The alliance plans to initially use both the JIL and OMTP BONDI requirements, evolving these standards into a common standard within the next 12 months. Ultimately, we will collectively work with the W3C for a common standard based on our converged solution to truly ensure developers can create applications that port across mobile device platforms, and in the future between fixed and mobile devices.
The alliance will serve as one point of contact for the industry and is open to all relevant parties – from telecommunications operators and device manufacturers to internet service providers and application software developers. For more information go to www.wholesaleappcommunity.com or email info@wholesaleappcommunity.com
http://www.wholesaleappcommunity.com/ / http://www.wholesaleappcommunity.com/?q=content/leading-operators-unite-unleash-global-apps-potential-0
Today, a group of the most prominent wireless operators in the world announced its intent to form an "open app store," that is capable of vending applications to all mobile phone users.
Calling itself the "Wholesale Applications Community," the group is made up of 24 of the biggest mobile network operators including China Mobile, Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone, NTT DoCoMo, Telefonica, SK Telecom, Sprint, AT&T, Verizon Wireless, and hardware manufacturers LG, Samsung, and Sony Ericsson.
The group says it aims to set up the simplest way for developers to publish to the widest range of users and devices, or "scale unparalleled by any application distribution ecosystem in existence today."
It's a goal others are trying to reach...the decades-old WORA (Write Once, Run Anywhere) ideal. Adobe, for example announced today that it is bringing its AIR runtime environment to Android, which lets users develop across multiple platforms.
But the WAC today said it will utilize mobile widget language JIL (Joint Innovation Lab) and application runtime OMTP BONDI to reach that goal, rather than devise new standards for developers to be able to write once and run anywhere.
JIL is currently in beta and BONDI is only up to version 1.1, but they both have SDKs available for download now.
http://www.betanews.com/article/Wireless-operators-want-their-own-open-app-store/1266273692
http://www.omtp.org/
(y)
Mobile World Congress, Barcelona – 15 February 2010 Twenty-four leading telecommunications operators have formed an alliance to build the world’s first open platform that delivers applications to all mobile phone users. For customers, the initiative will mean a broader choice of innovative applications and services available on a wider choice of handsets than ever before.
América Móvil, AT&T, Bharti Airtel, China Mobile, China Unicom, Deutsche Telekom, KT, mobilkom austria group, MTN Group, NTT DoCoMo, Orange, Orascom Telecom, Softbank Mobile, Telecom Italia, Telefónica, Telenor Group, TeliaSonera, SingTel, SK Telecom, Sprint, Verizon Wireless, VimpelCom, Vodafone and Wind are committed to create an ecosystem for the development and distribution of mobile and internet applications irrespective of device or technology.
Together, these operators have access to over three billion customers around the world. The GSMA and three of the world’s largest device manufacturers – LG Electronics, Samsung and Sony Ericsson – fully support this initiative.
The Wholesale Applications Community aims to unite a fragmented marketplace and create an open industry platform that benefits everybody – from applications developers and network operators to mobile phone users themselves.
The alliance’s stated goal is to create a wholesale applications ecosystem that – from day one – will establish a simple route to market for developers to deliver the latest innovative applications and services to the widest possible base of customers around the world. In the immediate future the alliance will seek to unite members’ developer communities and create a single, harmonised point of entry to make it easy for developers to join.
"The GSMA is fully supportive the Wholesale Applications Community, which will build a new, open ecosystem to spur the creation of applications that can be used regardless of device, operating system or operator," said Rob Conway, CEO and Member of the Board, GSMA. "This approach is completely in line with the principles of the GSMA, and in fact leverages the work we have already undertaken on open network APIs (OneAPI). This is tremendously exciting news for our industry and will serve to catalyse the development of a range of innovative cross-device, cross-operator applications."
Jonathan Arber, Senior Research Analyst at independent analyst house, IDC, said: "Attracting and retaining developers is vital for any application store offering to succeed. However, mobile application developers currently face a high level of fragmentation in the industry, in terms of both technology platforms, and individual operators’ working practices. Developers want to meet the largest possible addressable market, as efficiently and painlessly as possible, and the Wholesale Applications Community initiative can meet these criteria by providing a simple, single point of access to a large number of operator storefronts. The initiative should also help to drive uptake of existing, open standards among developers, operators and manufacturers, thereby reducing fragmentation and benefiting the whole industry."
The alliance plans to initially use both the JIL and OMTP BONDI requirements, evolving these standards into a common standard within the next 12 months. Ultimately, we will collectively work with the W3C for a common standard based on our converged solution to truly ensure developers can create applications that port across mobile device platforms, and in the future between fixed and mobile devices.
The alliance will serve as one point of contact for the industry and is open to all relevant parties – from telecommunications operators and device manufacturers to internet service providers and application software developers. For more information go to www.wholesaleappcommunity.com or email info@wholesaleappcommunity.com
http://www.wholesaleappcommunity.com/ / http://www.wholesaleappcommunity.com/?q=content/leading-operators-unite-unleash-global-apps-potential-0
Today, a group of the most prominent wireless operators in the world announced its intent to form an "open app store," that is capable of vending applications to all mobile phone users.
Calling itself the "Wholesale Applications Community," the group is made up of 24 of the biggest mobile network operators including China Mobile, Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone, NTT DoCoMo, Telefonica, SK Telecom, Sprint, AT&T, Verizon Wireless, and hardware manufacturers LG, Samsung, and Sony Ericsson.
The group says it aims to set up the simplest way for developers to publish to the widest range of users and devices, or "scale unparalleled by any application distribution ecosystem in existence today."
It's a goal others are trying to reach...the decades-old WORA (Write Once, Run Anywhere) ideal. Adobe, for example announced today that it is bringing its AIR runtime environment to Android, which lets users develop across multiple platforms.
But the WAC today said it will utilize mobile widget language JIL (Joint Innovation Lab) and application runtime OMTP BONDI to reach that goal, rather than devise new standards for developers to be able to write once and run anywhere.
JIL is currently in beta and BONDI is only up to version 1.1, but they both have SDKs available for download now.
http://www.betanews.com/article/Wireless-operators-want-their-own-open-app-store/1266273692
http://www.omtp.org/
(y)