Diversifying O2 Litmus away from pure mobile
In the first major interview of 2010 with paidContent:UK, I hinted at some of our upcoming plans.
A key foundation of our strategy is to broaden our appeal to the web developer community by making available web compatible tools, and by bringing through new innovative features and offers. This strategy actually is not so new. A kind of hidden feature of O2 Litmus is that you do not actually have to upload a native mobile application to be featured in the Litmus catalogue. It is possible to publish a simple URL to your web service which is then sent via SMS to the customers phone.
As mobile browsers become more sophisticated, I predict a huge increase in browser based services for mobile. The browser environment brings two key benefits:
[/caption]
To use the URL feature, sign into O2 Litmus with a valid developer account. Click on "My Apps" on the Litmus toolbar, then pick "launch an app" . Complete the required fields for the publication process, simply inputting your web address in the "Enter your URL" field, rather than uploading native app files.
Building on this diversification we have made available the SDK for the O2 Joggler device, representing a new category of connected home devices. O2 is very keen to tap into developer innovation to drive forward the Joggler story.
An accompanying Joggler SDK FAQ has also been published, and feel free to ask anything that is not covered.
Finally, we have confirmed our first batch of sponsorships for 2010. I'd encourage you to check out these events and support them:
- It increases the appeal of the mobile opportunity to the web developer community, and brings to ubiquity of the web to mobile
- It help address some of the fragmentation issues developers face, as you do not have to pick a mobile operating system to write a native app for.
