LIVE FROM APP PLANET FORUM AT THE GSMA MOBILE ASIA CONGRESS 2010:The Wholesale Applications Community (WAC) – an alliance aiming to enable developers to write applications that can be deployed across multiple platforms and operators, and address a potential global market of more than 3 billion users – this morning announced the addition of handset vendors Sharp and Sony Ericsson to the initiative. WAC also said it will team with the GSMA’s OneAPI initiative, making OneAPI “the standard to be used by WAC operators for the exposure of network APIs.”

The presence of Sony Ericsson – a top tier device vendor – is of particular significance, as the company was on the teamsheet when the initiative was announced last February but missing from a member update last month. WAC now claims Samsung, LG, Sharp, Sony Ericsson, Huawei and ZTE as device vendor supporters; a vital component if WAC is to gain mainstream commercial success.

Other new members include Aepona, Cambertech Inc, GClue, Gemalto, Infraware and KT Innotz as Associate members, as well as Russian operator VimpelCom as a new Operator Member. This takes the total membership count to 57.

Meanwhile the integration of the GSMA’s OneAPI initiative is designed to reduce the effort and time needed to create applications and content that are portable across mobile operators and is aimed at enabling WAC developers to quickly and effectively develop web-based applications that span platforms, devices and operators. Graham Trickey, Senior Director, GSMA, commented: “The selection of GSMA OneAPI will guarantee its exposure by WAC operators and encourage widespread exposure by other operators, allowing Web application developers to use a common set of network enablers to reach more subscribers more easily. Operator billing is a key feature of GSMA OneAPI, enabling the development of additional revenue opportunities for operators and developers.” 

The total list of WAC members is: Accenture, Aepona, Alcatel-Lucent, Aplix, América Móvil, ASPire, AT&T, Bell Mobility, Borqs, Bouygues Telecom, Cambertech Inc, Capgemini, China Mobile, China Unicom, Deutsche Telekom, Ericsson,  France Telecom, Fujitsu, GClue, Gemalto, Huawei, Hutchison 3 Group, Infraware, Innoace, Intel, KDDI, KT Corporation, KT Innotz, LG Electronics, LG Uplus, LiMo Foundation, MTS, Myriad Group, NTT DOCOMO, Oberthur Technologies, Obigo, Opera Software, Orascom Telecom, Oracle Corporation, Qualcomm Incorporated, Rogers Communications, Samsung, SFR, Sharp, SK Telecom, Smart Communications, SOFTBANK MOBILE, Sony Ericsson, Telecom Italia, Telefónica, Telekom Austria Group, Telenor, Verizon,  VimpelCom, Vodafone, ZTE and the GSMA.

For detailed news and analysis on the initiative, see our previous articles below.