China Unicom, Opera Software and LiMo Foundation sign up
The Wholesale Applications Community has announced that a further 11 operators have joined the applications development community, with 21 new companies also joining as board level, sponsor or associate members – bringing overall membership to 48. There are some significant names in the list of new members.
The body has also announced that the WAC 1.0 specification is now available, following the completion of the WAC and JIL merger. The organisation WAC announced the completion of the purchase of the JIL assets on 1st October 2010. The completion of the acquisition is the final stage of the process to combine JIL with WAC, and enables WAC to provide the WAC 1.0 specification to the developer community.
“The availability of the WAC 1.0 specification sends out a strong message to the developer community that we are committed to working with them to create cross-platform applications that will benefit the entire mobile communications ecosystem” said Peters Suh, CEO of WAC. WAC 1.0 is based upon JIL 1.2.2 and is available to download at www.wholesaleappcommunity.com.
One name that will spark interest in the list of new joiners is the LiMo Foundation – which is developing a Linux based operating system for mobile phones. It is the first open OS body to sign up to WAC as a member.
“LiMo is committed to promoting consolidation and co-operation amongst industry stakeholders around a common set of technologies in order to accelerate the delivery of innovative applications and services to mobile consumers globally,” said Morgan Gillis, executive director of LiMo Foundation.
“One of the key objectives of WAC is to drive web technology across multiple platforms by providing a consistent widget runtime and specifying a broad range of device and network APIs,” added Suh. “We are delighted to welcome LiMo Foundation and look forward to working together to bring universal availability of WAC apps a step closer.”
Another “first” in the list of new joiners is Opera Software – the first browser vendor to join WAC. “For years, we have said that the Web is the most important application platform there is,” said Lars Boilesen, CEO, Opera Software. “Now we have the opportunity to collaborate with global operators to make the Web the common platform for mobile applications. This will ensure mobile applications will be available for almost everyone with a mobile phone, not limited to those with smartphones or a particular OS.”Opera products already support the initial WAC 1.0 standard as it already suopported the original Joint Innovation Lab (JIL) 1.2.2 standard.
Last but not least – there are some pretty major operators joining the body. The addition of China Unicom means that China Mobile and China Unicom are both represented, bringing a potentially vast market together for WAC developers.
LIST OF NEW STARTERS
The operators joining WAC at Operator Member level are América Móvil, Bell Mobility, Bouygues Telecom, China Unicom, Hutchison 3 Group, KDDI, LG Uplus, MTS, Orascom Telecom, Rogers Communications and SFR.
Accenture, Ericsson, Huawei, Intel, Qualcomm Incorporated and Samsung are Joining WAC at board level.
New Sponsor Members include Alcatel-Lucent, Fujitsu, and LG Electronics.
The new Associate Members are Aplix, ASPire, Borqs, Capgemini, Innoace, LiMo Foundation, Myriad Group, Oberthur Technologies, Obigo, Opera Software, Oracle Corporation and ZTE.