Accenture, NTT Docomo to offer remote testing for smartphone content providers

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Accenture and NTT Docomo said Thursday that in late March 2012, the two companies will begin offering to Docomo-affiliated content providers a remote, self-verification operational testing service for content (e.g. applications) developed for smartphones. The service will then be expanded to the broader smartphone market in Japan.

As part of the agreement, Accenture will establish and operate a remote test center at the University of Aizu in Fukushima Prefecture. Through the center, Docomo will provide information on the devices, including the latest models, and a working network environment for the operational testing of software on the devices.

Currently, content providers must purchase the devices themselves in order to test their content under development for debugging purposes. But with the rapid introduction of a wide variety of smartphones and tablets (with different screen sizes, operating system versions, etc.), the cost of development, including the cost of purchasing the actual devices, has become a heavy burden for the developers.

The services provided by Accenture and Docomo are expected to deliver significant cost savings and contribute to the development of higher-quality content for smartphones by providing a more rapid and efficient development environment. Docomo’s “dmenu”, a portal site for smartphone entertainment and services, will contain many examples of content developed in this new environment.

“By combining NTT Docomo’s information on the latest devices and its working network environment with Accenture’s remote test capabilities, we are confident the service will significantly reduce some of the issues that content providers face in dealing with the rapid growth of smartphone platforms,” said Arata Shimizu, a senior executive in Accenture’s Management Consulting growth platform. “Together with NTT Docomo, we hope to accelerate the production of advanced content for the Japanese market.”

The establishment of the test center represents the first phase of an initiative based in Aizu Wakamatasu City, which was launched by the city, the University of Aizu and Accenture in August 2011, to promote industry development and employment creation in Fukushima Prefecture.