MWC: Alcatel-Lucent tries own app aggregation play

Alcatel-Lucent today debuted a sophisticated, second-generation app enablement strategy today at the Mobile World Congress event, although at least some of its thunder was undoubtedly stolen by a multi-operator plan that shares much of the same DNA.

Alcatel-Lucent’s strategy builds on an earlier announcement late last year when it rolled out a suite of app enablement tools and announced plans for an Open API Service. Today’s announcement takes those plans to the next level by more clearly detailing plans to bundle application programming interfaces, or APIs, from multiple operators when it can. It also delivered two tools for making its vision a reality: a cloud-based developer sandbox for trying out new applications and a dashboard to help developers track their projects.

At the center of the vendor’s plans is what it is calling an API aggregation and bundling model that packages up collections of APIs and Web services that developers can use to create a new application. One of the problems with the application approaches of OS-centric environments like the Apple iPhone or Google Android is that they route around telco APIs altogether. For instance, rather than using network location they rely on GPS; or rather than relying on telco user info, they tap into social media profiles, and on and on.

The reasons for that route around are several. Apple and Google are more developer-focused to begin with, making it easier to attract developer partners. They are also more Web-centric in their approach, while telco APIs too often require specialized telephony expertise. And finally, and perhaps most importantly, developers must bring together APIs from multiple operators across multiple geographies in order to create the critical mass of users they need to monetize their applications.

“The idea is to let developers write once and access multiple service providers – a lot of SMS aggregators do the same kind of thing today,” said Laura Merling, vice president of ALU's developer strategy. “What we can do is help service providers bundle APIs together, then, as a developer rather than pay for one API or another you can access multiple APIs across service providers, API providers and other developers. We want to encourage them not to go over the top but make [telco APIs] more palatable by giving them things they want access to.”

In addition to aggregating APIs, Alcatel-Lucent’s model also changes how developers pay to access APIs. Rather than charge upfront fees or set monthly per-API-call minimums, Merling’s team has put forth a model where developers can access APIs for free and then share revenue on the back-end to cover the costs once the app starts making money.

Alcatel-Lucent won’t formally announce its first set of API bundles or operator partners for another 60 days, but Merling mentioned areas such as media and entertainment; gaming; enterprise applications; and social networking as areas in which it considering releasing API bundles.

To help drive the API model and bundles, Alcatel-Lucent also unveiled two developer tools. The first, a virtual sandbox, will provide an environment that will let developers test their applications across multiple service provider API bundles and networks. The second, a dashboard, will offer developers with a real-time business analysis of their applications, including application activity, API statistics and cost and revenue projections.

Alcatel-Lucent is showing the new platform and talking about its strategy at Mobile World Congress.

Also at that event, a group of the world’s largest mobile operators agreed to form the Wholesale Applications Community, with the goal of creating a common application development platform over for their networks. The end result of the effort would be a developer being able to write code for a single app and have it work over every member’s network and devices, serving billions of subscribers.

That effort threatens to overshadow Alcatel-Lucent’s effort, though the two could potentially dovetail, depending on how the vendor positions its program moving forward.

Regardless of whether the Wholesale Applications Community takes off, mobile operators need tool vendors and application environments like Alcatel-Lucent is offering to put new app strategies to the test. Alcatel-Lucent’s Merling said the vendor has a handful of customers trialing various pieces of its app platform; for instance, some are using it for API exposure plus the sandbox while others have also added app store distribution to the mix. One of the strength’s of Alcatel-Lucent’s approach is its modular nature – which could also help it fit into other industry app efforts as well.