Operators organize to streamline application development
Mobile operators are consumed with the realization that they must simplify the application development process for their partners and the software development community. Many companies have established programs to help developers write applications to run on their networks, and several industry-wide groups have initiatives underway to create tools that will make it possible and convenient to develop applications to work on multiple networks.
A common theme among operator-led groups is to create common APIs that developers can use to tap into the network's intelligence and services. Apps that can exploit the network's location information, subscriber personalization preferences or billing capabilities, for example, could introduce new, compelling features and new value to customer products. Developers need APIs to build these capabilities into their apps and they are eager to have access to these tools.
So what are the primary organizations pursuing these goals and what progress have they made? Here's an update.
The Wholesale Applications Community
The newest group is the Wholesale Applications Community, led by 24 operators and announced by the GSMA in February during the Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona, Spain. The participants want to create a wholesale applications ecosystem and harmonize some of the developer organizations to give developers a single point of entry to a large number of operator storefronts.
The WAC is so new that its organization, operations and planned deliverables have yet to be fully articulated, but the GSMA has said the group will take advantage of the work already underway by the GSMA's OneAPI initiative. It will also combine the efforts of two other initiatives: the BONDI initiative, which is operated by the OMTP, and the Joint Innovation Lab, which is operated by China Mobile, Softbank Group, Verizon Wireless and Vodafone.
The three groups each have a common focus on creating Web-based solutions and attracting Web developers as opposed to device-centric approaches. The focus on Web applications is forward-thinking, according to Bhavya Khanna, an analyst at ABI Research, and will help solve fragmentation issues caused by native apps.
While the WAC is new, each initiative it is embracing has made progress. Here's an update:
GSMA's OneAPI: The OneAPI initiative offers a common set of APIs that Web developers can use to access network capabilities. It should be approved as an international standard by the OMA next month, with the first APIs providing access to network information for payment, messaging and location-based applications.
While the GSMA is pursuing standardization of the OneAPI, it is also making it available on a commercial basis. Several Canadian operators, through a pilot program, offer a portal developers can use to access payment, messaging and location APIs for their applications. It represents the first time developers have been able to gain access to multiple operators' network assets from a single portal, said Graham Tricky, project manager at the GSMA.
The GSMA is pursuing additional pilot programs with operators in North America and in Europe, with the earliest interest coming from operators in the UK.
The BONDI Initiative: The BONDI Initiative, which will now become one of the underlying platforms of the WAC, is sponsored by the OMTP. It offers a Web services interface that developers can use to create applications and widgets that will run on different devices and platforms independent of the underlying operating system. It also offers a security framework. The organization just published the full specification as release version 1.1 and demonstrated some implementations used on devices such as the Samsung Wave. LG has offered an SDK for widgets that supports BONDI and there are implementations from various software houses that use the Android OS.
Tim Haysom, chief marketing officer of the OMTP, said that commercial BONDI products should be available within a year.
"You will see apps being sold, users with devices that can use the apps, and revenue coming in because those apps are being sold through operator channels and the WAC," he said.
The Joint Innovation Lab: The JIL has a mobile widget platform and APIs, now available in beta as version 1.1, which the operator partners will all adopt to create a global market for products based on the specification. The group has lined up at least eight manufacturers to provide JIL-compliant handsets. The allure for developers is the operators' combined markets, which reach into 70 countries. The four operator members are making the specification available royalty-free to other operators around the world and it is contributing it to the WAC.
What's next?
While operators are organizing around the open API theme, many other initiatives are in place and more can be expected to emerge. The GSMA, for example, is developing APIs under its Rich Communications Suite initiative that targets advanced messaging apps for IMS networks. And individual vendors offer open API solutions that their operator partners can use.
"You'll continue to see different open API initiatives," Khanna said. "It won't simplify into a few."
And as the industry knows, large initiatives can take years. Operators must move fast to make their solutions relevant in the needed time frame lest alternative approaches become de facto standards.
"But if they get organized, they can dictate what the phone OS looks like, the development environment, the application distribution environment," said John Puterbaugh, founder and CEO of Nellymoser.
