Press Coverage

SurfKit Phonetop Cross-Platform Support Extended to BREW and RIM Devices

CTIA, San Francisco, 10 September 2008 – SurfKitchen, the market leader in On-Device Portal (ODP) applications, today announced that its SurfKit Phonetop product suite is available on BREW and RIM BlackBerry platforms. By extending its cross-platform reach, SurfKitchen is able to provide unrivalled mobile platform support, with its SurfKit Phonetop product suite available on feature and smart phones across Symbian Series 60 and UIQ, Microsoft Mobile 5&6, Java J2ME MIDP2 and now BREW 3.1.15 and RIM BlackBerry platforms.

SurfKit Phonetop Cross-Platform Support Extended to BREW and RIM Devices

CTIA, San Francisco, 10 September 2008 – SurfKitchen, the market leader in On-Device Portal (ODP) applications, today announced that its SurfKit Phonetop product suite is available on BREW and RIM BlackBerry platforms. By extending its cross-platform reach, SurfKitchen is able to provide unrivalled mobile platform support, with its SurfKit Phonetop product suite available on feature and smart phones across Symbian Series 60 and UIQ, Microsoft Mobile 5&6, Java J2ME MIDP2 and now BREW 3.1.15 and RIM BlackBerry platforms.

Spurred by the success of widgets online, numerous companies have begun developing mobile widget platforms, either as direct-to-consumer applications or white-label services for operators and brands to customise. Widgets offer consumers a new way to quickly access content that interests them. This is particularly useful for mobile, where navigation remains a tricky experience.

I’ve just finished another column for Mobile Media (MM), a subscription-only publication published by Informa. This time it was an analysis of the emergence of ad-enabled widgets and how developers/content owners/brands might monetize these idle-screen mini-applications. Thanks to my esteemed colleague Guillermo Escofet for his worthwhile contribution to the piece.

Cincinnati Bell Wireless has added the Sony Ericsson W580i Walkman slim slider phone to its portfolio of handsets.

Just three years after Netscape enabled the commercial Web in 1994, cellular network providers leapt on the platform and introduced the wireless application protocol (WAP) to bring the wonders of the Internet to mobile devices. Faced with the long-term prospect of flattening voice revenue, rich mobile data services delivered over the wireless Internet presented an attractive proposition to increase average revenue per customer (ARPU) and reduce customer churn.

Back in 2006, ARCchart coined the term “On-Device Portal”, identifying a generation of products that deliver content on the mobile phone through the use of a dedicated client application – whether that application was Java, native, or developed in an open OS (e.g. Symbian or Window Mobile). We segmented ODPs into three classes of products - offline portals, on-device storefronts and home-screen replacements. We saw on-device portals as an evolution of the browser-based WAP experience, which suffered from unexciting graphics and aesthetics, and a frustrating user experience owing to the need to connect with a slow 2G network for every step of the WAP journey.

If operators could monetize clicks, the mobile content market would be a far more lucrative place. Instead, the sheer volume of clicks required to access and purchase ringtones, wallpapers and games actually robs carriers and their content partners of revenue. Faced with the complexities and frustrations of downloading premium content to their handsets, many subscribers simply give up midway through the process, or steer clear of mobile content altogether.

SurfKitchen – the market leaders in On-Device Portals consider the mobile market at its tipping point.

In-Brief: Cincinnati Bell Wireless (CBW) recently became the first U.S. carrier to launch an on-device portal (ODP) from SurfKitchen, a provider whose software has been deployed by mobile operators including Orange Group, Telefonica Moviles España, Telstra, Maxis, Etisalat and ALJAWAL (Saudi Telecom). Eric Schimpf, General Manager of Consumer Wireless for Cincinnati Bell, talks about the decision, the pivotal importance of an ODP platform and the carrier’s future roadmap. Another worthwhile post on CBW strategy comes from Ajit Jaokar via Open Gardens, who examines the merits of a bottom-up/super-local approach to telecoms services.