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Alcatel-Lucent releases developer's kit, community portal
Gordon Peters
Wednesday, 20 October 2010 00:48
According to Tom Burns, president, enterprise and strategic industries at Alcatel-Lucent, the My IC Phone 'ushers in a new era of applications and sophistication never before seen in a desktop phone, redefining what users can do from their desk.'
'Unlike traditional desk phones, the new device offers an open platform for communications and applications, and an entirely new user interface based on a large multi-touch display,' Burns said, adding that 'the true business value of our new smart desk phone is unleashed with open applications that drive better employee and customer engagement.'
Burns said the company's goal was said to bring thousands of innovative developers together to drive the creation and adoption of new communications applications for the enterprise.
The SDK is a free, open source toolkit for the development and enablement of enterprise communications applications for the My IC Phone and future smart desk phones, and Burns says that developers benefit from the SDK since it enables them to develop, test and deploy applications with just the phone itself, and that no PBX or switch is required for development.
'This lowers the cost of development and makes it more accessible to a larger development community. It also uses open Web programming standards (such as Java Script, HTML 5.0, Ajax) to significantly reduce the developer learning curve and time to market with new applications.'
Burns also said that, critical to supporting the new phone and platform, the company is leveraging its experience with its successful application partner program (AAPP). The updated and enhanced developer portal for the My IC Phone will be available in November and allows developers to begin creating applications immediately.
According to Burns, the development environment is designed to grow an ecosystem of My IC Phone developers and applications and 'is a place for community interaction and collaboration. Plus, Alcatel-Lucent is an active participant in the collaboration efforts, forming a true Web 2.0 community.'
Using the portal, people worldwide can create projects that can be viewed by others, Burns says, and he adds, it allows developers to get visibility in the enterprise market. 'End-users benefit from this creative and innovative environment that generates unique as well as practical applications. Over 300 developers signed up and are already starting open source projects.'
Alcatel-Lucent says it encourages developers to tailor applications for specific use cases and industries, such as financial services, travel and hospitality. 'For example, My IC Phone applications in a financial services environment could include real-time communications and twitter feeds from traders,' Burns said, adding that for the hospitality industry, 'the ability to access guest services and control all room convenience devices, such as room temperature and entertainment, can be centrally managed by the guest using the My IC Phone.'
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