Business model by July, devices by November, open for business February
The Wholesale Applications Community (WAC) will be live by February 2011, according to acting CEO Tim Raby.
In a series of briefings held yesterday Raby outlined the proposed timetable for WAC. The aim is to have the company (which will be not for profit) formed and the board elected by July 2010.
Raby also wants to see “business models announced for participating companies” developed by July. This would include a “very clear vision about what hurdles [members need to] jump through so they can look at costs, what they get in terms of revenue share, tax positions etc.” said Raby. Raby said “early members of WAC are looking at the way we enable app monetization… at various different recurring revenue models that we can use, including the way operator assets can be used in an innovative form.”
By September 2010, WAC hopes to have published materials and documentation for developers, with the first developer event held in November 2010. Raby said that he expected there would also be “a reasonable device portfolio even as early as November”.
Then in February 2011, WAC will open for business at Mobile World Congress, allowing operators to launch their own retail strategies and stores using apps held in the Wholesale Community.
Raby said that he expected the WAC to address the current “problems” with the applications space, mainly that applications revenues have become “decoupled” from the network investments required to support them. Put crudely, the operators want what they see to be a fairer slice of the app revenue.
Raby said that WAC was “not just about the operators”, but what can operators offer developers to attract them away from the existing, OS and device-based app stores? Well, first they think they can offer increased scale – the ability to develop and submit once, and see apps deployed across a range of operators. Secondly, they think they can offer something less tangible, greater use of “network operator assets”. This could be something as simple as the billing relationship, or better customer care, up to more complex data and information that could add functionality to an application, such as location.
Thirdly, a standards-based approach based on WC3 standards and common APIs will increase the opportunities for developers to develop from the web for mobile.
Raby said, “A developer in the Google world would have an API event that tells him whether a user has turned from landscape to portrait. That’s a great feature. But if you are a web developer you have no access to that API. JIL and BONDI APIs provide access to that kind of technology – flattening the gap between web technology and platform technology. Taking BONDI and JIL and combining them with the oneAPI standard set of netork APIs is taking away duplication.”