Fed up with Apple's dominance of the mobile application market, more than two dozen wireless companies and a few phone manufacturers are joining forces.
They've announced the Wholesale Applications Community, whose goal is to make app development easy across many platforms, and to let consumers use their apps on a wider range of mobile devices. All four U.S. wireless carriers (including T-Mobile parent company Deutsche Telekom) are participating along with European giants Orange and Telefonica, plus 20 others. Manufacturers LG, Samsung and Sony Ericsson are also on board. Combined, WAC has a customer base of 3 billion.
Clearly, the potential for something great is there. The alliance is hoping to draw developers with the promise of creating software once and having it work on many platforms, including Android, Symbian and Windows phones. For consumers, WAC promises a broad range of software choices on a wide range of devices.
The real trick will be in the execution. Skepticism among industry analysts is already at a high level, as reported by Reuters. Some say competitors, such as AT&T and Verizon Wireless, won't want to cooperate so closely, and that they'll find a way to differentiate themselves. For that matter, Samsung is launching its own app store, called Bada, and AT&T has a vested interest in Apple's success as the exclusive U.S. carrier of the iPhone and upcoming iPad.
But I don't think the point of WAC is for all these competitors to offer the same products. It's just a way for them to encourage app development on non-Apple devices, and then bring those apps to as many platforms as possible. So while one analyst told Reuters that it'll be hard to compete with Apple's marketing prowess, the point isn't to market WAC, but to make a behind-the-scenes resource that quietly builds up alternatives to the iPhone App Store.
I have my doubts -- WAC hasn't announced any leadership or details on how they'll achieve their goals -- but it's a cause worth rooting for, at least.
