The Wholesale Applications Community, which was formed earlier this year by global telecommunications operators looking to build an open alternative Apple’s iTunes and similar storefronts, has taken its first steps.
The initiative has formally registered as a not-for-profit corporate entity based in the UK, named a prestigious board of directors, and joined forces with the Joint Innovation Lab (JIL).
Peters Suh has been named the CEO of the Wholesale Applications Community. Most recently Peters was the CEO of the Joint Innovation Lab (JIL), a joint venture between China Mobile, SOFTBANK MOBILE, Verizon Wireless, and Vodafone. Prior to JIL, Peters held a number of executive positions at Vodafone, Fremont Communications and AirTouch.
The company announced that Michel Combes, Vodafone Chief Executive Europe has been elected Chairman of the Wholesale Applications Community, and Jean-Philippe Vanot, Deputy CEO, France Telecom has been named as Vice Chairman.
In addition to Combes and Vanot, the WAC board of directors includes:
- John Donovan, CTO, AT&T
- Li Zhengmao, VP, China Mobile
- Olivier Baujard, CTO Deutsche Telekom
- Alex Sinclair, Chief Strategy and Technology Officer, GSMA
- Dr Hyun-Myung PYO, President of Mobile Business Group, KT Corporation
- Dr Kiyohito Nagata, SVP, NTT DOCOMO
- Sung Min Ha, President Mobile Network Operation Business Unit, SK Telecom
- Napoleon Nazareno, President and CEO, Smart Communications
- Tetsuzo Matsumoto, Senior Executive Vice President, SOFTBANK MOBILE Corp.
- Marco Patuano, Head of Domestic Market Operations, Telecom Italia
- Vivek Dev, Group Director of Global New Services, Telefónica
- Dr. Hannes Ametsreiter, CEO, Telekom Austria Group
- Morten-Karlsen Sorby, EVP and Head of Corporate Development, Telenor
- Dick Lynch, EVP and CTO, Verizon
WAC aims to establish wholesale applications ecosystem that provides a simple route to market for developers to deliver the latest innovative applications and services. Network operators would be able to distribute applications through their respective application storefronts and charge users through their existing phone bill. In this model, developers will set the application price and will receive a revenue share for the transaction. The revenue share will be defined on an operator-by-operator basis.
WAC aims to publish its initial specification and components of its SDK to developers in November. This specification will be based on W3C standards and create a strong platform for developing rich mobile web applications. WAC will also provide backwards compatibility for devices based upon the current JIL and BONDI specifications.
http://www.wholesaleappcommunity.com
