Open Source Mobile Widget Platform unveiled by Orange

During the ‘Mobilize 2010’ conference in San Francisco, Orange announced its “Open Source Mobile Widget Platform” is now available to the mobile industry. The Open Source Mobile Widget Platform is a technology developed by Orange Labs that enables web-based mobile apps to be developed for all mobile devices, ranging from the lowest to the highest form factors All telephone manufacturers, integrators, developers and operators can access the technology on http://github.com/osmwp in the coming weeks..

The Open Source Mobile Widget Platform includes:
+ a ‘widget reader’, already integrated into millions of Orange mobiles throughout the world
+ server technology that enables management of a catalogue of widgets
+ tools for creating widgets, documentation and examples of code

By giving the mobile industry free use of this technology, Orange intends to shake up the market, creating additional opportunities for developers and content publishers. Orange would also like to enable developers and content publishers to engage with more mobile customers and help put the mobile internet within everyone’s reach.

This initiative is a demonstration of Orange’s commitment to a more open world, launching a product which itself relies on the Open Source Mobile Widget Platform. Orange Widgets function on the most basic terminals and have been especially designed to reach the widest possible range of mobiles. Already available to Orange customers since 2009, the widgets help Smartphone and feature phone users enjoy the best of internet services in a graphic, fun, simple and connected form. To further enrich the Orange Widgets catalogue for the benefit of its users, Orange partnered with Netvibes in early 2010.

Orange has a history of being open. It has worked with a number of partners and developers through its Orange Partner programme since 2004 Orange was also one of the first operators to publish its API’s, making them available to developers from 2008 onwards to create value added services for customers.

Patrice Slupowski, Vice-President Digital Innovation and Communities said at Mobilize 2010:“At Orange, our ambition is to help all our customers get access to the mobile Internet. By taking this open approach, we are sharing our know-how in getting mobile widgets onto commonly used, low-end mobile phones, just as Netvibes did with its Universal Widget API technology. Like our partner, we believe open source publishing is for us the best way to guarantee the relevance, openness and long term survival of the platform.”