AT&T detailed its mobile developer strategy at its 2011 AT&T Developer Summit, held alongside the CES 2011 trade show. The US number-two operator said that it is “expanding collaboration opportunities with the development community – with a focus on speeding innovation to customers.” As part of its strategy to drive app use among mainstream users, AT&T announced a “renewed commitment” to use Qualcomm’s Brew Mobile Platform in its mass-market “quick messaging phones,” which it says “a sizeable segment of consumers who aren’t ready for smartphones rely on today.” In order to increase this reach further, it announced that America Movil and Rogers Wireless have also agreed to use Brew MP, giving developers access to subscribers across the Americas region. AT&T is also “enforcing API standardisation” for Brew MP devices, and “streamlining and reducing the cost” of Brew app certification.

The operator also announced plans to launch a “beta” programme for an HTML5 development toolkit for AT&T devices, which it said will enable developers to combat device platform fragmentation and “spur app proliferation.” By the second half of 2011, it expects the “majority” of its new smartphones and many of its quick messaging phones to support current HTML5 standards. It also highlighted its role as a founding member of the Wholesale Applications Community, noting that HTML5 is at the core of the community’s 2.0 specifications.”

AT&T trumpeted what it describes as a “first-of-a-kind” agreement with Open Feint, which makes it “the first and only US carrier to offer a social gaming platform that can work across wireless networks.” Apparently, this will enable developers to build games which allow users to compare scores, challenge each other and compete head-to-head, features which would be “costly to build independently.” A software developer’s kit providing APIs for Open Feint is available free-of-charge for the Android platform from the AT&T developer website.

Also in the pipeline is an “alpha” programme to enable selected developers to create mobile, web and PC apps which integrate with AT&T’s U-verse multimedia services. It says that this “could lead to the creation of apps that enable AT&T customers to shop, vote and play games via their wireless devices and TVs.”

John Donovan, CTO of AT&T (pictured), said that the company is, in partnership with others, investing US$70 million to build three innovation centres worldwide, which it claims is “an effort considered unprecedented in working with the app developer community.” The first centre is planned to open imminently in Dallas, to be followed by sites in Silicon Valley and near Tel Aviv, Israel. The aim is to “foster collaboration and improve project cycle time from idea to market by threefold.”