Alliance to spur mobile app development in Thailand

Nine public and private sector organizations in Thailand have come together to pool their resources and expertise to drive the growth of mobile app development and up the number of skilled developers, local news agencies reported.

According to Thai news site The Nation, the alliance--named Mobile Technology for Thailand (MT2)--was announced on Wednesday and aims to elevate the local mobile app industry on to the global stage. This will be done through providing technical know-how, development facilities, and training to developers, the report noted.

Among the nine organizations are Software Park Thailand, the Telecommunications Research and Industrial Development Institute (Tridi), Microsoft Thailand and Intel Thailand, The Nation stated. The group, the report added, aims to raise the number of local mobile app developers to between 30,000 and 40,000 within four years.

This is a jump from the estimated several thousands of mobile software developers and less than 100 mobile app companies in Thailand currently, stated the Bangkok Post

The Thai news agency also reported that the MT2 alliance will implement its plans in stages. One of the first things on its to-do list would be to provide a platform framework for Google's Android, Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 and Intel's MeeGo mobile operating systems (OSes), the report stated.

Additionally, group members Tridi and Software Park will be working together to open a mobile testing center by September, allowing developers to test applications on different devices instead of investing in their own testing center, reported the Bangkok Post.

Thanachart Numnonda, MT2's secretary and director of Software Park Thailand, expressed optimism for the initiative. "This could lift the country's competitiveness to a global level, enabling a huge expansion of the local mobile application market," he said in the report.