A cadre of leading telecommunications and handset companies have apparently had enough of Apple’s dominance in mobile applications and have formed an alliance aimed at delivering applications to all mobile phone users regardless of platform.
According to a statement, 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.”
The community will provide a single point of entry for developers to build a mobile application once and have it run on a wide range of handsets regardless of service provider.
According to the WAP, the addressable market for developers is some three billion customers worldwide.
Some of the initial participants include AT&T, NTT Docomo, China Mobile, Verizon Wireless, Telefonica, SingTel, Sprint, Vodafone, Orange and Telecom Italia. On the handset side, LG, Samsung and Sony Ericsson have committed to the effort. The WAP says it is also recruiting Internet service providers and software developers.
The WAP is hoping to get in on the huge market for mobile applications while exploiting unrest among iPhone developers. Last year, iPhone developers threatened to sue Apple over delayed or altogether non-payment, Apple rejected a popular iPhone voice app from Google for nebulous reasons, and in late 2009 developers complained that Apple failed to adequately address their complaints over its application approval process.
In its statement, the WAP seemed to speak directly to developer unhappiness, pointing out that it will create a community “based on openness and transparency” where “developers will thrive” and “establish a simple route” to develop apps for “the widest possible audience.”
The WAP effort will yield applications “irrespective of device or technology,” but it initially is aimed at handsets. It would be nice if smartbooks and the smartbook form factor were included. Their larger screens would require developer tweaking, but it shouldn’t be too onerous. After all, the iPad was announced ready to run with the entire store of iPhone apps.
Lisa
