Orange opens up its widgets platform - Rethink Wireless

In keeping with its work on common mobile software platforms, Orange has made its Open Source Mobile Widget Platform available to the industry. The platform was developed by Orange Labs and enables web-based apps to be developed for all kinds of phones, from high end smartphones to featurephones.

The system, accessible soon at http://github.com/osmwp, consists of a widget reader, already integrated into 80% of Orange handsets; server technology to manage a catalog of widgets; and tools to create those widgets.

Orange widgets are particularly suited to basic handsets, looking to extend the mobile apps experience to low end devices especially in the cellco's increasingly important emerging markets in regions like Africa. In March, Orange partnered with Netvibes, promising to "democratize" the mobile software platform. It added Netvibes' catalog of nearly 200,000 apps to Orange Widgets and to the French cellco's djingo platform, which is one of the less recognized, but more innovative, parts of the firm's complex web strategy.

Djingo is accessible from compatible phones that run on other carriers' networks, and is a small step towards the days when Orange will have to adapt to open access, as well as an attempt to generate brand and revenues as a multiplatform web software vendor, not just a network owner. Djingo reaches beyond open OS smartphones and addresses Java featurephones, as does Orange's app store strategy, which will evolve to cover the 'three screens - phones, PCs and IPTV.

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