Twenty-four telecom operators unite to form Wholesale Applications Community
By Laura June 
posted February 15th 2010 5:06AM
posted February 15th 2010 5:06AM
Wholesale Applications Community to push apps market to over 3 billion customers with strong support by world-leading device manufacturers
BARCELONA, Spain--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Twenty-four leading telecommunications operators have formed the Wholesale Applications Community, an alliance to build an open platform that delivers applications to all mobile phone users.
"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"
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 – also 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.
It understandable why Nokia, Blackberry, Palm and Apple would chose to to join as all four already have their own app platforms, but I wonder why no HTC...
@bobloblaw maybe HTC is happy with the android marketplace
Where are you Canada!
@lechen
Wind Mobile is Canada. Too bad they just launched a couple of months ago and don't have a large enough footprint to be considered "National" yet. :(
Looks like bad news to me: I believe it is the sign that networks operator want to have their own "appstore", to force back the users to install their own approved applications, just to get their share of app distribution tax (and increase data usage of their network).
I far prefer the good old model where I installed a cab found on the developper website, like I do for desktop computer. a Smartphone is a computer, just small, but they seems to push the "network appliance" more and more....I do not like the centralized app store approach, very reminiscent of the "download our new ringtone for 1 € only", constantly inflated phone bills and the end of the month...
@fatjoe Also, while I think it would make the developer websites less meaningful, and therefore less commonplace, I'm not sure this will prevent that, though it could be a negative consequence no doubt.
@juanvaldez
I think the main thing is precisely to prevent that (direct installation without going through a store), the ease of use for the average joe is just some sugar added to get the kool-aid less bitter...(and, from the developper point of view, the sweetener is that there is less warez going on with a appstore model). 30% distribution tax is just too good to be true for the appstore owner, no wonder networks want to get the golden-egged geese for themselves...
Look at the "no install from SD card" (android), or simply no SD card (iPhone). Sure, WinMo feels dated, lag, has no eyecandy, and UI is not finger-friendly....But it's cab-install system is the most open thing we get in the phonebusiness right now, and I will miss it strongly when it will go away (or not, finger-crossed for the 7serie presentation). Pity Android is going the appstore way, I love linux and it had the potential to open things even more...Google just missed the boat :(
Uh Nokia, Apple, RIM etc make and sell phones etc they aren't Teleco's .. and these guys better be very careful not to do anything that looks like a cartel or whatever its called. price fixing etc. Governments take a dim view of that most places
@goseki My other comment got lost, I'll summarize. This, in theory will desegregate the marketplace, with in theory will bring a more competitive balance to the market place. They still have to compete against the largest cell phone manufacturer and the largest app store, though their is a barrier to exit due to contracts if as a consumer, so things will be mostly competitive. I don't see government getting involved unless there is actual evidence of price fixing, and a rise in prices wont even be enough there because the industry isn't mature enough for a rise in prices to solely be evidence (if the quality is rising then prices *could* rise).
@juanvaldez Also, from my prev lost comment, govs like standards when it makes production costs go down or increases the market size...this does (or at least could do) both.
@fatjoe Well, only 3 manufacturers are in the mix here, and #1 decided to stay out and step aside for #'s 2, 3 & 4, I wonder how it'll work in practice and do to the market.
But I don't think Nokia missed the boat, might just be watching from the sidelines for now and wondering if they can do better on their own with a controlled environment.
Airtel - India is also among them .....
Good to see this. As consumers, it is very irritating having applications that will only work on one OS and being difficult to port onto another.
This number of manufacturers and operators will probably grow. No surprise to not see Apple
@pesh56
bad taste
No more proprietary power cords?
Apple's control is hard enough to swallow for me, I definitely don't want to give that power to the operators. Sorry guys, your past sins are still well remembered.
@Neuro
One ring to rule them all.
@pesh56 Nope, its just WAC.
Man, this is WAC!
This announcement means nothing. The telco's need to remember they don't make the hardware, software, or API sets.... it's the manufacturer's, and they don't want to be told what to do by the telcos more than they do already. It's not like they're going to let you port your apps from one phone to another's carrier's phone... hah! they'll just make you buy it again.
*sigh* I wish telco's would just realize they are just the pipe. Just make it reliable and don't rip me off when you bill me for it.