Vividly Mobile

What is this Wholesale Application Community? You may be forgiven for asking…

An initiative of noble intent. Led by a crowd of world-wide mobile network operators, a sprinkling of handset manufacturers, and the mobile standards deity, GSMA. Under the banner of the Wholesale Application Community, they’re all valiantly fighting the mobile dragons of fragmentation.

In the world of mobile application development there’s a colourful array of competing and differing technologies. Whilst some of this diversity is healthy, too much of something is never a good thing. In the case of mobile application development it can lead to bloated development and testing schedules/budgets.

Looking at the problem on a larger scale there’s too few developers and too many platforms to support.

It’s not new news who has the biggest piece of the app pie, and it’s not surprising that others like the network operators are looking for a bigger piece of the action. Whilst the Wholesale Application Community initiative works to hammer out some fragmentation, it must also ensure the developers tool chain is stable, efficient and easy to use. Many look at the run away success of the Apple app market from an end market perspective, but unless the developers tools are up to the job, the glorious, shiny tower of a super huge App store will never ever become reality. This is one of the key attributes (often over looked) why Apple has soared and others have flunked.

The current scope of the Wholesale Application Community is pragmatic, but a little too tame. Today, there’s at least three competing web app technologies JIL, BONDI and Webkit. The Wholesale Application Community (WAC) will only attempt to integrate two of them, unfortunately it’s the weakest two! So based on Darwin’s laws, at least one would have perished sooner or later. Unfortunately, the WAC efforts are likely to result in two fairly balanced technologies still competing and this is where business politics come to play.

Apple, Google and Nokia, the Webkit advocates like to play business their way, and the WAC is the network operators protecting their interests and aiding the common good – rationalising fragmented technologies. However, don’t look at the history of how the technology fragmented in the first place, as that quickly ends up in business politics again and doesn’t smell the freshest.

Nothing stands still, so lets see where this goes over the next 12 months. Who knows there may be jam tomorrow and the dream of write once, deploy everywhere has become a reality – If only it was that simple! (VM)