MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS—File under “whoa:” Nearly every major wireless operator in the world has signed onto an initiative to create an applications store that can address every user out there, regardless of device or access technology. Well, almost every user: the iPhone is likely to be a holdout, considering the store would take on the iTunes hegemony in a sweeping way.
Nonetheless, AT&T Inc. and the other three national U.S. carriers, Vodafone plc, Telefonica, Deutsche Telekom and others are part of the 24-operator alliance under the GSM Association, to build an open wholesale apps platform. Total addressable market: 3 billion subscribers.
The GSM Association and three of the world’s largest device manufacturers – LG Electronics, Samsung and Sony Ericsson – also support the initiative. Notably missing besides Apple are BlackBerry maker Research in Motion Ltd., and No. 1 handset vendor Nokia, which is leveraging its own Ovi store to push new Symbian and MeeGo open-source platforms. Also hanging in the balance is Google’s Android OS, which relies on its Android Market to supply apps for the phones it powers.
The alliance, dubbed the Wholesale Applications Community, will establish a central route to market for developers to deliver services to any subscriber. The first order of business is the unification of members’ developer communities and the creation of a single, harmonized point of entry to make it easy for developers to join.
Of course the devil will be in the details when it comes to executing the plan. “I do question whether such a large group of mobile operators will be able to achieve the level of cooperation and integration required to make this initiative a success,” said Mark Newman, chief research officer at Informa Telecoms & Media. “Some of these operators (for example AT&T and Sprint) are fierce competitors and have always tried to find ways of differentiating themselves in order to win market share.”
There is also the issue of courting developers, many of whom have invested significant resources in writing for Apple and Android and, as Newman points out, have historically distrusted operators because of the unfavorable revenue share deals that have been on the table. “A number of the developers that we have spoken to would rather operators keep out of the applications development community entirely," Newman said.
