China Mobile, SOFTBANK and Vodafone have agreed to establish a Joint Innovation Lab (JIL) to promote the development of new mobile technologies, applications and services. The three companies say they expect the initiative will help to accelerate the commercial deployment of mobile Internet services.
The three companies will use the JIL as a platform to develop mobile services and drive innovation and synergy in the industry, to the benefit of their combined global customer base. The JIL will launch projects based on emerging technologies and market demand.
The JIL will focus on rapidly-growing areas of mobile Internet services, such as mobile widgets. Initially, the JIL plans to develop a platform for mobile widgets to encourage the development of innovative new services that can leverage mobile operators unique capabilities.
The move is expected to enable different widgets and applications to run seamlessly on different handset platforms and operating systems across different mobile operators, while safeguarding customer security, data privacy and billing systems. The companies say the development of a widget platform will benefit both developers and users. The JIL also welcomes the co-operation of vendors and developers in the creation of new applications and services.
The establishment of the JIL and completion is subject to regulatory approvals and certain customary closing conditions.