Qualcomm Wednesday said it has
created an open platform for developing
applications for wireless phones.
The company said its Binary Runtime Environment
for Wireless (BREW) will work for phones that use
Qualcomm’s Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA)
integrated circuits, a technology that Qualcomm
has championed. The company said the platform
will simplify application development for those
phones, will maximize airtime usage and will enable
users to download applications wirelessly.
Qualcomm separately announced that a variety of
wireless carriers, manufacturers and application
developers have said they will develop for the
platform. Among those who signed on are Verizon
Wireless, Leap, Korea Telecom Freetel, Samsung
and Kyocera Wireless.
Wireless operators must use Qualcomm’s QIS
Middleware product for distributing and managing applications and billing.
It will charge a fee and receive a portion of fees paid by end users to
the operators, according to the company.
However, device vendors can receive the platform without paying
licensing fees, Qualcomm said. On the phone, the platform will have a
footprint of less than 100Kbps, the company said. It said the BREW
environment supports most programming languages, including C/C++ and
that microbrowsers, Java applications will be supported, too.
Qualcomm said it will release the BREW software developers kit in May
for free.