Verizon this afternoon said it would publish the first version of its Any Device, Any App specs on March 19th at the Open Device Development Conference. Simply titled Version 1.0, the spec will mark the earliest opportunity for companies and other device makers can produce or modify devices to have them work with the company's newly opened service. Future weeks will see Verizon help match software written for the Verizon network to the smartphones and other devices that will run them, the carrier says.

Despite the news, Verizon has not committed to a definite launch date for the network change itself, which will be available separately from the company's more traditional device- and application-locked service. The update is promised for later in 2008.

The move comes just days ahead of Apple's anticipated release of a software developer kit for the iPhone, which will still remain locked to AT&T in the US and has widely been rumored to operate through iTunes rather than general services such as Handango's store for BlackBerry, Palm, Symbian, and Windows Mobile devices.