@TC3: JIL initiative tries to attract developers

SAN JOSE, Calif. – JIL, the Joint Innovation Lab, is an effort by four of the world’s largest wireless operators to put carriers back into the revenue-sharing equation as consumers move from voice-based applications to content.
Speaking at The Telecom Council’s TC3 meeting late last week in San Jose, Peters Suh, CEO of JIL and president of Vodafone Asia Pacific Ltd. & Vodafone Ventures Ltd., encouraged Silicon Valley applications developers to write applications for the initiative, noting how much scale they can achieve by writing to a set of specifications agreed to by the four operators. JIL members today are China Mobile, Vodafone Group, Verizon Wireless and Softbank, so an application has the potential to reach 1 billion subscribers. The initiative is ready to accept more members and in discussions with some operators, but does not want to become a standards body. (Standards bodies often have to include provisions from some members to keep all members satisfied.)
Apple Inc.’s App Store reshaped the wireless industry, Suh noted. The device and store are fantastic, he said, adding that Vodafone sells the iPhone in some of its markets. However, the economics of the iPhone don’t favor operators. Any application developed for the iPhone gives 70% of revenue to the developer and Apple gets the remaining 30%. In the U.S., for example, AT& Mobility, which subsidizes the handset, gets zero. “We’re concerned about zero.”
A reality of the apps store is however that 80% of the downloads available are free. And most of the paid applications are games, which generally cost less than $5. JIL offers something more, Suh said. “If you work with us, your application will be standardized” across four of the world’s biggest operators. JIL operates on open standards, unlike Apple. The JIL content platform is radio-agnostic and sits above the Operating System so developers don’t have to choose which radio protocol or which OS to write for. The venture has also adopted the 70/30 revenue split, Suh said.
China Mobile is readying to launch its first JIL terminal. Vodafone expects to announce devices in the next few weeks, which will be ready for the holiday season.