Wholesale Applications Community set to join forces with JIL
Given the Wholesale Applications Community (WAC) and Joint Innovations Lab (JIL) both have ease of multiplatform development at the heart of their operations, it's not overly surprising that the two bodies have announced they are to instigate a merger of sorts.
Co-operation between the two parties is set to aid WAC's transition into a not-for-profit corporate entity, with the venture designed to provide developers with an easy route to market that's commercially potent and profitable.
Widening WAC
With the wheels due to be set in motion in September, the partnetship will see JIL help WAC serve up app stores full of compatible titles, with the boards of the two parties working especially closely as a result.
Indeed, former JIL CEO Peter Suh has been named as the CEO of WAC as part of the deal, with Suh commenting that the new company is aiming to target the widest possible base of customers around the world.
"Today the Wholesale Applications Community comes into being as an established company, and this is a hugely exciting time for everyone involved in the organisation," he says.
"We're focused on establishing WAC as the first choice for brands and developers in the mobile ecosystem, ultimately delivering greater choice and value for the end user, the consumer."
Mass of marketplaces
It's developers that potentially have the most to gain from the move, however, with more marketplaces where they can sell their wares available as a result.
Given WAC's 40-strong global operator base and the ability to charge consumers through their phone bill as a result studios who work on WAC apps should be able to tap several new sources of revenue, with the respective share between developer and carrier decided on a store-by-store basis.
WAC will also enable in-app purchases in the future, and an advertising set-up that makes use location also in the pipeline.
The SDK is due to be released in November, though developers looking to leverage WAC's new commercial approach will get a better idea of just what is required in September, when the body publishes its specification.
The company claims said specification publication will provide a roadmap for studios already working on apps for JIL based devices, giving them a "clear path to deploy applications on a wider range of devices supporting the WAC specification in 2011".