Sprint is kicking off an initiative to help developers create multiple platform Web apps. The mobile carrier plans to use software from Openwave to build what it calls a Browser-VAS (Value-Added Service) Ecosystem. The project will encourage the development of apps that mobile users access via a browser instead of by downloading them to their phones.
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Kevin McGinnis, director of product development at Sprint, said that the company may give developers extensive information about how customers use the Web and their phones, if the customers agree. “To the extent that users have the ability to control the way their information is used … we think the user should have the ability to enhance their experience based on what they’re doing,” McGinnis said. “I like to call it ‘advertising as a service.'”
