A new European research project aimed at developing technology that will allow applications to be ported across multiple platforms has received EUR10 million in EU funding, according to reports today.

The initiative, known as Webinos, is led by the Fraunhofer Institute for Open Communication Systems (Fokus) in Germany and has the support of several high-profile industry names. Major European operators Deutsche Telekom (T-Mobile), Spain’s Telefonica and Telecom Italia are on board, as are device vendors Samsung and Sony Ericsson. 

Webinos is researching a framework for apps that will allow them to be delivered across a wide range of connected environments including mobile devices, PCs, web-enabled TVs and in-car units. Its goal is to address the current fragmented apps environment that requires apps to be reprogrammed to work on different platforms.

“Companies can afford to have an app on two or at most three platforms – they’re extremely costly to develop and ensure the user experience,” project lead Dr Stephan Steglich told the BBC this week. “That’s what we want to address – to provide a system that runs on all these platforms and domains, where the developer comes up with one application for one platform and lets you run it on all these devices – mobiles, automotive, gaming, and so on.”

However, rather than developing yet another apps platform or simply providing tools that translate an existing app to work on another platform, Webinos’ plan is to make apps run in a web environment (based on W3C standards) rather than from a device OS. “The greatest common denominator among all these devices is the web browser – that’s the only thing people can use to accept the same content,” Dr Steglich explained.

Webinos’ work mirrors some other industry initiatives underway, notably the mobile operator-led Wholesale Applications Community (WAC). A WAC spokesperson told Mobile Apps Briefing today that Webinos was “entirely complementary” with its own work and that many of the same industry players are involved in both. It noted, however, that WAC was already working on commercial implementation while Webinos was a longer-term research project. “This is a global and cross industry phenomena,” a spokesperson said. “The fact that both are in existence being driven and co-ordinated by similar companies and both actively collaborating with W3C will contribute to their mutual success.”

The Webinos project is to run for three years and will cost around EUR14 million. It has a total of 22 project partners on board from across Europe, spanning academic institutions, industry research firms, software firms, handset manufacturers and automotive manufacturers.