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| Friday, 04 July 2008 | |
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Operators collaborate on next generation mobile Internet…
This week an international group of mobile operators unveiled a new initiative to create a blueprint and roadmap for opening up mobile functionality to encourage the development of next generation mobile applications without compromising customer security. The new initiative is known as BONDI. Supported by members of the Open Mobile Terminal Platform (OMTP) organisation, including 3 Group, AT&T, T-Mobile, Telenor, Telefónica, Telecom Italia and Vodafone, BONDI aims to provide a consistent and secure Web services interface that can be used by all Web developers across multiple device platforms. This apparently will provide the opportunity for Web developers to address a mass market of consumers and to drive the use of data services on mobile. BONDI aims to expose key handset features to Web developers to help them evolve more function-rich, user friendly and relevant applications. The new handset software will be engineered in such a way as to prevent fraudulent and malicious activity through unauthorised access to functions or sensitive personal information. OMTP managing director Tim Raby comments: “Users have to be certain when they use the mobile Web that their privacy is paramount. The OMTP goal is to ‘enable and protect’ – to enable fantastic new services whilst at the same time protecting the user.” “Mobile Web 2.0 is an exciting opportunity; the potential for advancement is huge,” adds Carlos Melendo, senior manager Handsets at Telefonica. “We at Telefonica, are looking forward to seeing BONDI help bring the mobile Web close to the capabilities of the PC Web.” “A really simple way for developers to create rich mobile services and applications, combined with the required security and trust by the parties in the provisioning of them, could really boost the mobile Web 2.0”, concludes Stein Hansen, vice president Group Strategy at Telenor. “BONDI is an important step in that direction.” In another mobile Web 2.0 development, DoCoMo Communications Laboratories GmbH has announced the alpha release of the prototype IYOUIT (as in ‘I’, ‘You’, ‘It’) service for Nokia Series-60 mobiles. Jointly developed with the Dutch Telematica Instituut, IYOUIT supports instant automated sharing of personal experiences within communities online. It offers rich contextual tagging for use in everyday life - for example, by hooking a mobile phone up to the popular Flickr and Twitter Web 2.0 platforms, sharing can be instantly achieved by posting single data items to such services, or through the aggregation of context information in online blogs. According to DoCoMo the innovation with IYOUIT is in how information about and around the mobile user is automatically collected, analysed and enriched for an enhanced user experience, in the process adding extra value to Web2.0 services. The architects of BONDI and IYOUIT may be on to something. A recent analysis from Juniper Research (click) reckoned that, spurred by Web 2.0 and greater 2.5/3G network penetration, the number of subscribers using mobile Internet services will rise from 577mn at present to top 1.7bn by 2013. John Williamson |
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