The more competitive the mobile market gets, the less the idea of tying the various strings of the industry together seems possible.
The Wholesale Applications Community (WAC), however, continues to march on, with the body using Mobile World Congress in Barcelona to announce it's effectively ready to roll.
The 68 strong group came together to serve up a common standard for app developers, providing studios with an easy route to market that's commercially viable.
One year on from its unveiling at MWC 2010, CEO Peters Suh claims the pieces are starting to fit together.
Happy anniversary"Working together in a unified manner as an industry, we are having a positive impact on the mobile application development ecosystem, providing developers with a simplified method of creating applications and content, and delivering them across operator, handset and operating system," said Suh.
"With the commercial launch of operator storefronts, handsets and applications, all based on WAC, we can say that WAC is now officially open for business."
Securing backing from all corners of the industry is going to be fundamental to WAC's longterm future, so news that Samsung and LG are to ensure all their devices are capable of supporting WAC runtime is key.
Similarly, the announcement that Sony Ericsson has developed a white-label WAC enabled storefront for operators opens up the prospect of WAC apps infiltrating the market almost by stealth.
Carrier wise, WAC can already call on China Mobile, MTS, Orange, Smart, Telefónica, Telenor, Verizon and Vodafone as members.
Wholesale updates
Just what bearing WAC will have on the market as a whole will take some time to deduce, though the body itself is continuing to move forward regardless.
WAC enabled handsets and storefronts announced at Mobile World Congress are based on version 1.0 spec, with 2.0 introducing HTML5 web apps and further rich media support.
WAC 3.0, which is due to roll out in September, will unlock features such as in-app billing and user authentication.
News
With a fine eye for detail, Keith Andrew is fuelled by strong coffee, Kylie Minogue and the shapely curve of a san serif font.
Related Articles
Top Stories
Feature
May 17th, 2024
New release roundup: The best new mobile games from a battle royale to a console classic remake
Feature
May 16th, 2024
Behind the scenes: How adding sandwich offers to an idle merge game boosted three metrics at once
Events
Digital Dragons | Europe | May 19th |
GamesBeat Summit 2024 | North America | May 20th |
Mobidictum Meetup Tallinn May 2024 | Europe | May 21st |
Nordic Game Spring 2024 | Nordic | May 21st |
Impact 2024 - Indie Games | May 23rd | |
Morocco Gaming Expo | Africa | May 24th |
MomoCon 2024 | North America | May 24th |
Unreal Fest Gold Coast 2024 | Australasia | May 29th |
Popular Stories
Feature
May 14th, 2024
53 top mobile games in soft launch: Squad Busters, Battle Guys: Royale, Plants vs. Zombies 3, LEGO Hill Climb Adventures, and more
Feature
May 13th, 2024
Hot Five: Dubai's new Gaming Visa, April's mobile game charts, and Xbox studio closures
Interview
May 13th, 2024