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
News
4 hours, 33 minutes ago
Red Games Co's Brian Lovell on their Apple Design Award Win: “Inclusivity was a focus from the beginning"
News
Jun 11th, 2024
App Store developers can start nominating their games for featuring later this year
Feature
3 hours, 17 minutes ago
Mobile Mavens: Are today's everlasting, live ops games holding back new innovation?
Feature
4 hours, 45 minutes ago
The key takeaway from Apple's AI-laden WWDC keynote? It's time to buy a new iPhone
Events
Tribeca Games Festival 2024 | North America | Jun 5th |
Steam Next Fest: June 2024 Edition | Jun 10th | |
WN Conference Istanbul 2024 | Jun 11th | |
GamesForum Hamburg 2024 | Europe | Jun 11th |
ESI London 2024 | Europe | Jun 13th |
Game Con Canada (GCC) 2024 | North America | Jun 14th |
Indie Dev Play 2024 | Europe | Jun 14th |
DevGAMM Vilnius 2024 | Europe | Jun 14th |
Popular Stories
Interview
Jun 5th, 2024
A galaxy far, far away… Why Star Wars: Hunters took six years to hit the target
as
Feature
Jun 3rd, 2024