HELSINKI, FINLAND: Four major cellphone vendors including Blackberry-maker Research in Motion will support operator-backed technology that allows software applications to work on different operating systems.

The operators' Joint Innovation Lab (JIL) said on Wednesday phones from LG Electronics, RIM, Samsung Electronics and Sharp will be able to run its middleware from early 2010.

Middleware enables mobile applications like games or news widgets to work on any operating system. Multiple operating systems are one of the key obstacles for the development of the mobile software market.

The move will give cellphone makers better access to more than one billion clients of the JIL members - China Mobile, Softbank, Verizon Wireless and Vodafone - across Africa, Asia, Europe and North America.

The focus in the cellphone market is shifting increasingly into software and services following the runaway success of Apple's online software store.

The venture said the wide range of handsets will enable developers to create applications that can be rolled out to customers across member companies.

"Customers will benefit from having a wide range of useful and innovative mobile applications to choose from," JIL said.

JIL middleware works on a variety of smartphones as well as mid- and low-cost handsets across several operating systems.

China Mobile and Vodafone have opened services built on top of the middleware, while Verizon and Softbank are expected to unveil their offerings next year.

These services - like Vodafone's 360, which allows users to store contacts from social networks in one place and will automatically synchronise to users' computers - are direct rivals to Apple's App Store and Nokia's Ovi services.

China Mobile told Reuters earlier this month it was seeing momentum building amongst software developers.