ATLANTA—It’s been a long time coming, but wireless carriers are finally getting the idea that cooperation is a good thing when it comes to enterprise applications.
Cingular Wireless, Sprint PCS Group, T-Mobile USA Inc. and Verizon Wireless all have upcoming business application offerings that depend on third-party partners. As a result, enterprise customers will be able to buy applications direct from the carriers with the confidence that the products were developed by software experts.
“That makes sense,” said Kevin Baradet, chief technology officer of the S.C. Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University, in Ithaca, N.Y., and an eWeek Corporate Partner. “[The carriers are] not software developers. They’re not even hardware developers. This will be a good move.”
Cingular’s efforts include separate application offerings from Siebel Systems Inc., Computer Associates International Inc. and Unisys Corp., said officials here at the CTIA Wireless show last week.