LAS VEGAS-Along with continuing to combine various industry standards groups, the Open Mobile Alliance said it will initiate a new interoperability testing program to cover a variety of wireless data technologies, ranging from multimedia messaging services to digital rights management.
Under the OMA’s new release program, participants are required to undergo interoperability testing to ensure their products and services will work together. The release program covers what the group calls “enablers,” which include browsing technology, MMS, digital rights, domain name server lookup capabilities using mobile devices, content downloading, push technology, user/device profiles and instant messaging and presence services.
Many of the specifications come from groups the OMA has worked to acquire, including browsing technology from the WAP Forum, instant messaging specifications from the Wireless Village initiative, and MMS work through the MMS Interoperability Group. The OMA most recently consolidated the Mobile Wireless Internet Forum and the Mobile Games Interoperability Forum.
“The OMA Release Program together with the new enablers illustrates a strong industry endorsement, showing that we are a market-driven alliance,” said Mark Cataldo, chair of the group’s Technical Plenary.
In other news, Palm Inc.’s operating system subsidiary, PalmSource Inc., announced it will join the Open Mobile Alliance standards group.
“The efforts of the Open Mobile Alliance are in line with PalmSource’s strategy to enable interoperability between handhelds, wireless data devices and smart phones through open standards,” said Albert Chu, vice president of business development for PalmSource. “Our vision is to leverage PalmSource’s expertise in compelling user experience for mobile devices deploying OMA’s specifications, to give users of Palm Powered devices full interoperability across mobile information products.”
