By Telecom Lead Team: Mobile major AT&T has unveiled
new developer initiatives at the sixth annual AT&T Developer Summit. As per
the new program, AT&T will support for the development of HTML5 mobile apps
with add-that-to-my-bill technology that will make it easy for developers to
monetize their applications through the AT&T bill.
AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets Chief Marketing
Officer David Christopher announced the new AT&T API Platform for
frictionless access to APIs, or software programming hooks that allow
developers to easily incorporate AT&T services into their applications.
New tools are expected to help developers create
multi-screen apps, including for AT&T’s U-verse TV service.
AT&T announced AT&T Cloud Architect, a
developer-centric cloud platform providing storage and infrastructure
as-a-service.
A new AT&T Application Resource Optimizer tool will
allow developers to create apps that operate more efficiently, reduce data
usage, and save battery life.
AT&T plans to introduce a new AT&T App Store in
HTML5 with a fresh format that will benefit developers and customers –
underscoring AT&T’s commitment to HTML5 technology.
“Applications are one of the primary reasons people
buy smartphones and tablets. With that appetite, we need to have the world’s
greatest apps. Collaborating with developers and supporting their creativity
through the AT&T API Platform and other best-in-class tools is the best way
that we can make sure our 100 million-plus wireless customers have access to
the best apps and mobile experience,” said David Christopher, chief
marketing officer, AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets.
The AT&T API Platform will make app development
easier than ever by giving developers access to the APIs they need in one
convenient place. When developers start writing applications, the classes and
objects they will need to interface with AT&T services are already written,
and accessible. The platform empowers innovation through relationships with
outside developers, while maintaining AT&T’s commitment to protecting and
maintaining our customers’ privacy.
The platform will offer in-app billing technology that
will allow developers to receive payment for their apps through the
convenience, speed and security of the AT&T customer bill. The platform is
designed to support HTML5 browsers, part of AT&T’s commitment to the
advancement of HTML5 technology.
AT&T is opening up AT&T U-verse receivers to
developers to enable development of multi-screen applications that interact in
the home with U-verse TV, the fastest-growing TV provider in the United States
over the past 11 quarters combined, with 3.6 million subscribers and $7 billion
in annualized revenue as of third quarter 2011.
AT&T also announced the coming launch of AT&T
Cloud Architect, an innovative suite of flexible, integrated cloud services for
developers and internet-centric businesses that allows users to build an online
business or run an application quickly with low operating costs.
The API platform (powered by Apigee) has been infused
with some additional detail and six disparate areas that are: Payment, Uverse
with Wireless, MMS/SMS, Location based services, device capabilities and
mHealth Alpha. This has put more structure and support to AT&T’s open
network initiatives that were mentioned at last year’s summit. Now there is
more substance and application details to this program and platform,” said Mike
Sapien, Ovum Analyst.
In addition, there was also an announcement of AT&T
joining the OpenStack initiative which is significant as AT&T is the first
US carrier to join. It is further evidence of the strong support for open
mobile application development and service enablement that AT&T has been
promoting in enabling more cloud based services and innovation from external
parties including its developers. And with the sponsorship of Microsoft’s
Windows phone platform, we expect to see more enterprise applications as
by-products of the combined developers and AT&T internal product
development.
The network is the oxygen’ was one of the key mantras
shared by John Donovan in his presentation. Although it is an interesting
analogy for an application centric audience, one has to wonder how AT&T
will monetize this -oxygen’ for many of the data hungry applications, devices
and end users. And there was a mention of global capabilities but there wasn’t
any detail on services that were going to be available outside the US.
