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Verizon Wireless To Join China Mobile, SOFTBANK And Vodafone In Creating The Largest Global Platform For Mobile Developers


WEBWIRE

Initiative to Help Developers in Creating Fun and Useful Mobile Widgets for Approximately 1 Billion Customers.

LAS VEGAS and BASKING RIDGE, NJ — Verizon Wireless announced today that it plans to join the Joint Innovation Lab (JIL) established by China Mobile, SOFTBANK and Vodafone to help accelerate the uptake of innovative mobile technologies on a mass-market scale.

The addition of Verizon Wireless, a joint venture of Verizon Communications and Vodafone, would mean that the JIL now has a combined customer reach of approximately 1 billion consumers.

The JIL will initially focus on creating a single global platform for developers to encourage the creation of a wide range of innovative and useful mobile widgets. These mobile widgets will be capable of enhancing the mobile Internet experience on a variety of smartphones as well as mid- and low-cost handsets on multiple operating systems.

As part of this initiative, the JIL plans to launch later this year a range of tools to encourage innovation among global mobile developers. The tools include: a common mobile widgets specification; easy-to-use developer kits; and an online repository, distribution and payment mechanism to ensure developers can roll out their products to customers in more than 70 countries across North America, Asia, Europe and Africa.

“This partnership will enable four of the world’s leading mobile operators to pool their combined expertise, innovation and scale for the gain of customers across the globe,” said JIL Chairman Masayoshi Son. “As well as driving innovation in the mobile developer world, this initiative is set to empower consumers by giving them access to a range of easy-to-use and compelling Web applications that will enable them to get even more benefits from their handsets.”

Mobile widgets are capable of boosting handset functionality as well as transforming the look and feel of a device to give customers quick and easy access to valued content. They are personalized, always-accessible mini applications that sit on a handset to retrieve relevant information from the Web such as weather reports, sports updates and travel timetables.

The JIL mobile widgets specification is set to enrich these services further by enabling developers to access both handset and network functionality such as the address book, camera, location information and billing in a secure environment.

The JIL has been working in close cooperation with a range of industry standards bodies such as the OMTP and the GSMA to outline specifications that will make it easier for developers to create widgets that run on a wide range of handsets, operating systems and networks.

The JIL also welcomes the co-operation of vendors, developers and other operators in the creation of new applications and services.



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