SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Today Deutsche Telekom, LG, Mozilla, Qualcomm Technologies Inc., TCL/ALCATEL ONETOUCH, Telefónica and ZTE joined other leading global mobile companies to announce the creation of the Open Web Device Compliance Review Board (CRB). The CRB is an independently operated organization designed to promote the success of the open Web device ecosystem by encouraging API compliance as well as ensuring competitive performance. The intent is to provide a full open Web experience to both users and developers. The CRB will also be the foundation for Mozilla’s Firefox OS branding requirements.
The CRB will support device manufacturers and technology partners to standardize performance, ultimately creating a superior experience in the following ways:
- Ensure API compliance and make the experience of open Web devices consistent for consumers
- Enable device OEMs and carriers to improve time to market
- Minimize OEM costs required for compatibility testing
“Users want a wide selection of devices and great apps. Operators, device OEMs and vendors want to be able to develop and test quickly and independently, in order to get new products to market. The CRB will enable partners to do so efficiently, reliably and confidently,” said Andreas Gal, vice president of mobile at Mozilla and president of the CRB. “This is the next step in building the ecosystem and will make it easier for partners to get a wide selection of high-quality solutions into consumers’ hands quickly and efficiently.”
The members of the CRB consist of a mix of partners covering geographically diverse markets, all with an interest in the success of an open mobile system. Participants in the CRB at launch are Deutsche Telekom, KDDI, LG, Mozilla, Qualcomm Technologies, Sony Mobile Communications Inc., Spreadtrum, TCL/ALCATEL ONETOUCH, Telefónica, Telenor and ZTE.
“As an initial founding member of the CRB, Qualcomm Technologies believes that CRB will set a clear path for any organization to commercialize open Web devices with improved development time while ensuring a compelling user experience & compliance to the standard web APIs,” said Jason Bremner, senior vice president of product management at Qualcomm Technologies. “This is an ambitious collaboration to further the goals of open technology and bring its benefits to more users.”
“Deutsche Telekom values openness and choice for customers,” said Christoph Schmitz, head of software and integration management, Deutsche Telekom Terminals. “That’s why we were happy to be among the first global launch partners for Firefox OS. Now there is an opportunity for other mobile innovators to take advantage of the rewards of open technology. The CRB is well positioned to accelerate this opportunity.”
"We joined the CRB to support this important and valuable effort to improve API reliability and performance,” said Dr. Xiaomao Xiao, VP of software engineering at Spreadtrum. “As one of the leaders in low-cost turn-key solutions for mobile communication devices, Spreadtrum is pleased to work with Mozilla and ecosystem partners to help further its mission.”
"This has been a landmark year for the adoption of open Web smartphones, " said Yotam Ben-Ami, director of open Web devices of Telefónica. "The CRB will help us and new partners scale our rollouts across new devices and geographies."
CRB certification testing will be conducted by external labs authorized by the CRB, with each test expected to be completed within approximately three days of submission.
For more information about the Open Web Device Compliance Review Board, including more detail on the steps involved for receiving certification, please visit https://openwebdevice.org.
About the Open Web Device Compliance Review Board
The Open Web Device Compliance Review Board (CRB) is an independently operated organization designed to promote the success of the open Web device ecosystem. It is a partnership between operators, device OEMs, silicon vendors and test solution providers to define and evolve a process to encourage API compatibility and competitive performance for devices. Standards are based on Mozilla’s principles of user privacy and control.
