WAC details plan of attack to save cellcos from bitpipe

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WAC details plan of attack to save cellcos from bitpipe

Operators' wholesale apps body announces business models, SDK due in November

By CAROLINE GABRIEL

Published: 27 July, 2010

READ MORE: Application Environment | Widget

The Wholesale Applications Community (WAC), formed in February to spearhead the operators' fightback against the bitpipe, has announced details of its formal organization and business model.

The body aims to create a common software development platform that can be used as the basis of own-branded applications offerings by any member, creating a huge pooled user base to lure developers. It will focus initially on widgets and is incorporating the work already done by the Joint Innovation Lab (JIL), a collaboration between Vodafone, China Mobile, Verizon Wireless and SoftBank.

Today, WAC said it should officially become a corporate entity in September and in the meantime, announced its management team and its commercial and technical models. The organization will be headed by CEO Peters Suh, previously head of JIL and before that an executive at Vodafone. Michel Combes, CEO of Vodafone Europe, was elected WAC chairman and Jean-Philippe Vanot, France Telecom's deputy CEO, its vice-chairman. The board of directors also includes AT&T's CTO, John Donovan, and his Verizon counterpart Dick Lynch; Li Zhengmao, a VP at China Mobile; and representatives of 11 other cellcos plus the GSM Association.

In his statement, Suhs said: "Our goal is to create a wholesale applications ecosystem that will establish a simple route to market for developers to deliver the latest innovative applications and services to the widest possible base of customers around the world. 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."

While the formation of WAC was a loud clarion call from the cellco industry, stating that the operators would seek to shape the mobile apps business rather than just provide the pipes, it has been less clear how this would be achieved. Some details of the incentives on offer to developers have been filled in, though more will be needed to convince the Community really can put brakes on the march of Google and the open web. WAC's key aim is to "monetize apps across the whole ecosystem". At launch, it will allow operators to distribute applications through their own stores and charge users through their phone bills - a key driver of consumer uptake.

Developers will set the application price and receive a revenue share, defined by the individual carriers. "This will ensure that revenue shares will be competitive in today's application market," said the organization. "WAC is a not-for-profit organisation and will receive a small transaction fee for each application to cover its operating costs."

Other business structures will be added in future, including in-app purchases, advertising, and support for apps that harness network APIs such as location. At this point, WAC's platform will be vying with vendor white label app platforms, aimed at boosting the cellco's position in the value chain - such as those from Alcatel-Lucent and Qualcomm.

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