Mediapost reports that WAC’s goal is to unite the apps market. A wholesale platform would create a single point of entry for developers, which is exactly what a company like Apple would contest. Apple did not attend the Mobile World Congress’ Conference last month.  The aim would be for smaller and larger developers to become essentially one large, united community for the mobile operating systems, carriers and others.

Creating the alliance would require a set of common open standards that would allow developers to create apps for different platforms.  Doing so would likely utilize standards that some mobile carriers have already started to adopt, such as JIL and Bondi. Those would eventually merge into one common standard.

Although the goal is to create a platform, the alliance also appears to be challenging Apple and its App Store.  Even before the alliance, major U.S. carriers such as AT&T and Verizon, as well as large tech companies such as Google and Microsoft, launched their own app stores.  Apple still holds a large advantage, which seems to be the ultimate driving force behind teaming up: to close the gap with Apple by luring developers away with  the opportunity to reach many more customers through a common, global platform.

The alliance’s goal is easier said than done.  Putting aside the difficult task of creating and integrating a common app platform and standard for different carriers, there is still the equally difficult task of developing mobile content, which only Apple has successfully done up to this point.

Thus, the market is there, but will these companies be able to put everything together to compete with Apple?  Apple could decide that the new standard violates its apps development standards. Therefore, another question must be asked: could the alliance lead to a marketing or legal showdown with Apple?

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It was created by Eric Koester, an associate at the law firm of Cooley Godward Kronis LLP.  He thought of the idea while attending a weekend retreat for aspiring entrepreneurs at Microsoft‘s campus and essentially created it on the spot with the help from some others.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the app is more or less a game to help you remember who people are in your social network. According to the ABA Journal news, the app pulls a photo from the users LinkedIn account and then asks the user to name that person from a list of four names to choose from.  There is a point system for correct matches, timeliness in answering, and additional points for identifying that person’s employer.

Although Apple takes 30 percent of the royalties, Koester and the people who helped him create the app stand in line to each get about $7,000.  Not bad for one day’s work, even for an attorney.

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The report was created by a third-party consulting group, Crimson Consulting, and is meant to be a helpful document for developers as they build Windows Mobile applications for Microsoft’s Windows Marketplace.

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The filing is ITU application 77775625 for “OneApp” in class 35 for “online retail store services facilitating the download of computer software for use on mobile phones, media players and other portable electronic devices.”

The talk around town is that this TM app signals a MS strategy to create applications that are “universal across classes of devices” and, hence, “OneApp.”  This is the opinion of MS blogger I Started Something who opines on the new ITU here.

Further bolstering this theory is a blog post concerning a Windows Mobile 7 job ad that refers to a position working with a “Unified (Communication) Store” suggesting Zune integration with other mobile devices.

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