Alcatel-Lucent (ALU) said it is making its OpenPlug Studio toolkit available for free to application developers as the network vendor tries to flesh out the ecosystem for more enterprise end users. The toolkit allows developers to write applications for a variety of devices from a single code base using known Web development technologies.
The company also launched a Certified OpenPlug Solutions Provider Program that focuses on application development and developer training. To date, members include Exuvis, Nexworld and On3. Those companies will teach developers how to use the OpenPlug tools, as well as build mobile applications for businesses that run across platform operating systems and leverage the operator’s network-based application programming interfaces (APIs).
Specifically, Alcatel-Lucent said the new direction will benefit enterprises that are geared toward business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-business-to-customer (B2B2C) users.
The company aims to “decrease fragmentation and friction to drive adoption across multiple platforms,” said Laura Merling, senior VP of Applications Enablement Strategy and Platform at Alcatel-Lucent.
Businesses increasingly are embracing wireless technology to connect with their employees and their customers. However, inevitably that means that companies have to make their applications work across Apple Inc.’s iOS and Google Inc.’s Android platforms, as well as others, and on smartphones, tablets and other connected devices. “They have to be able to support a variety of shapes and platforms,” Merling said.
Alcatel-Lucent wants to grow the ecosystem so more applications can be rolled out more quickly – and that these applications allow its customers, wireless operators, to be able to leverage their network assets so applications developers can bring something extra to the apps that enterprise end users want and that carriers can monetize. Under this business model, the enterprise has access to network information that can help their business and the operator has an extra service it can support. For example, using the network APIs, a program can be written that can add identity and entitlement on the app so if an end user bought a movie to watch in one place, but didn’t finish the movie, the application would know that the person bought it and is allowed to finish watching it in another location and perhaps on another device.
Alcatel-Lucent acquired OpenPlug last September as part of its Application Enablement vision. Changing the business model to free should speed the time it takes for developers to adopt the program. A-Lu will make money based on support services, but even that program is designed to encourage developers to collaborate as discounts will be given to developers who contribute to the process. “You have to fuel the ecosystem,” Merling noted.
The initiative aligns well with the Wholesale Applications Community, a group of operators and other companies trying to appeal to app developers to make it easier to write across a variety of open platforms.