Operators set up widget lab
Rating: Vodafone, Softbank& China Mobile create the JIL
I was supposed to be participating in a survey covering how UK journalists have interacted with Vodafone. But I dropped out when Vodafone ‘forgot’ to send me the news about the Joint Innovation Lab (JIL).
The JIL is not the first time that Vodafone and China have got together – there was the important announcement about LTE at the MWC in Barcelona, for example. This time it’s an initiative from that pair plus Japan’s Softbank. You may remember that Softbank bought its mobile network from Vodafone.
What will the Lab produce? You guessed it – widgets. (See previous story ). This is what the trio said, “This move is expected to enable different widgets and applications to run seamlessly on different handset platforms and operating systems across different mobile operators, while safeguarding customer security, data privacy and billing systems.”
In other words, these operators want to overcome one of the worst obstacles in the mobile web at present – fragmentation of operating systems. They also want to take control. It could well be that the Lab’s main work will primarily prove to be the certification of widgets. With any luck for me, the Lab might even be built in the UK.
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