24 operators team up for Wholesale Applications community
You're going to hear a lot about app store fragmentation this week at Mobile World Congress, but a big group of operators are trying to tackle it.
They've launched a 'Wholesale Applications Community', which they describe as 'an ecosystem for the development and distribution of mobile and internet applications irrespective of device or technology'.
Those on board include *deep breath*:
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.
They're trumpeting their aggregated market of more than three billion mobile users, and have signed up LG, Samsung and Sony Ericsson to support the GSMA-backed initiative - which means no Nokia, Apple or Research In Motion, yet.
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The big idea, then, is to unify the developer communities of all these operators, so mobile app makers have a single point of entry to start getting their apps distributed. A great idea in theory, although the devil will be in the detail.
It'll initially use the JIL and OMTP BONDI standards, but plans to unify those too within the next year. The community plans to work with web standards body the W3C to create a common standard for apps that run across different mobile platforms, but ultimately on fixed internet devices too.
"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," says GSMA CEO Rob Conway.
For more information, see the official Wholesale Applications Community website although at the time of writing, it's demanding a password to view it).
