It was announced today at the Mobile World Congress, that two dozen of the world's largest mobile-phone carriers, including the likes of Verizon Wireless, AT&T, NTT DoCoMo, Deutsche Telekom, China Mobile and Vodafone are combining forces to create an "open international applications platform," according to MoCoNews.  More than likely this is in response to the success of Apple's App Store.

In addition to the carriers, the GSMA and three device manufacturers, including LG, Samsung and Sony Ericsson are also giving the "thumbs-up" to the effort.  After doing the math, the group reaches 3 billion subscribers worldwide, which would make it the largest effort ever for an app platform such as this.  But the task will be difficult, mainly due to the massive scope and barriers that would be undertaken in bringing together so many platforms and operators.

The initiative is being deemed the "Wholesale Applications Community," aiming to create a wholesale platform for mobile apps that can provide a single point-of-entry for devs.  The group wants to use common open standards that will give developers the opportunity to create apps across multiple platforms.  The standards would include JIL, which Verizon, Vodafone and China Mobile have been in the process of working on, and OMTP BONDI.  Those standards are expected to gel into a common standard within the next year.  They will work with the WC3 standards bodies to create one solution for developers to create apps and port them across mobile device platforms and operators.

For more information on the initiative, you can head here.

Image courtesy of Nitelinemagazine.com