LiMo throws open-source weight behind carrier app plan

Wireless operators aren’t the only ones feeling the squeeze from Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Google’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) popular application storefronts. The LiMo Foundation today offered its backing to the 24-operator Wholesale Application Community (WAC), introduced at Mobile World Congress, in hopes that when combined, the two organizations will have a better shot at kick-starting their mobile-app take back.

Morgan Gillis, executive director and member of the board at the LiMo Foundation, addressed the WAC operator members in an open letter today, stating the LiMo Foundation’s intentions to offer its full support, committed participation and “immediate practical assistance in a spirit of whole-industry cooperation.”

“It is clear to us that the highly complementary areas of focus, shared belief in true openness and common industry vision create an exceptional opportunity for deep and long-term collaboration between LiMo Foundation and the Wholesale Applications Community to release unfettered innovation across the industry and fully ignite the mobile internet in a way that is compelling and life-enhancing to consumers everywhere,” Gillis wrote in the letter.

This mission of both the LiMo Foundation and WAC make them well-suited for partnership or potentially an eventual merger. Both are focused on white-labeling software and letting users personalize it to their needs. Both are also focused on reducing industry fragmentation and, more importantly, getting a piece of the revenues associated with mobile app stores. Some analysts have been skeptical about the WAC’s ability to make real progress or even agree on a standard across 24 participants. But, with the help of an established open-source community behind it, the mobile operators should have a better shot.

The WAC counts AT&T, Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile, Sprint, China Mobile, Orange, Telefonica and Vodafone amongst its founding members. It does have the support of handset makers, including LG, Samsung and Sony Ericsson, although Apple and Google were two not-insignificant companies left off the list of backers. The initiative is similar to the VZW, China Mobile, Vodafone and Softbank Mobile-created Joint Innovation Lab (JIL), focused on a common development ecosystem for widgets across global operators. Gillis said that a number of LiMo’s key stakeholders are also performing substantial leadership roles within JIL.

Gillis noted in his letter that since the Foundation was launched, three major releases of the LiMo platform have been released along with standardized white-label SDKS and 52 devices from operators including Vodafone and NTT DoCoMo. LiMo Foundation membership has also grown to more than 50 companies, including recent addition Adobe and 10 wireless operators, including Verizon Wireless in the US.

“Our experience in developing LiMo Foundation has given us clear awareness of the imperative of operationalizing at pace in order to gain traction beside the traditionally organized alternatives,” Gillis wrote, in a nod to Apple. To take down the popular iPhone OS, the LiMo Foundation has promised WAC a number of support roles, including creating a dialogue between interested operators and vendors, defining the governance model and crafting the WAC roadmap.

Concurrent with these initiatives, a number of independent app-store aggregators have reiterated their support for carrier-agnostic app stores as well. Alcatel-Lucent launched an initiative at MWC mirroring the goal of the operator’s WAC. Following the show, largest independent app store PocketGear acquired Handango to create a compelling alternative for carrier app stores. Fellow app-store enabler Tarsin today reiterated that it’s always been carrier agnostic, announcing its Capsa app platform has deploying mobile apps across the networks of the four major U.S. mobile carriers.