At Mobile World Congress, Red Bend Software, the market leader in Mobile
Software Management (MSM), announced the
industry’s first solution for enabling mobile service providers to
independently, centrally and consistently manage any type of software and
application on smartphones in order to more quickly and cost-effectively deploy
new revenue-generating services and features to the installed base. Red Bend’s
vRapid Mobile Software Management Client gives service providers control to
continuously manage software and apps and to monitor inventory across open OS
smartphones, beginning with Android—letting them deliver their own branded user
experience across mobile platforms.
The rise of smartphones is creating new opportunities for service
providers such as mobile operators and handset manufacturers to increase
revenues from services like social networking and music and from mobile apps
like navigation and games. Smartphones like iPhone, Android, Symbian, WebOS,
Blackberry and Windows make up 14.3% of mobile phone shipments globally, and are
expected to reach 25.9% of all handsets by 2013, according to IDC. This growing
diversity of devices adds management complexity that delays the rollout of new
services, increases deployment costs and limits penetration
rates.
“Software is now central to
the user experience of a device and consumers expect to be able to continuously
personalize their phones with new applications and services, not just ringtones
and wallpapers. However, with increasing fragmentation within service providers’
device portfolios, there is a significant management challenge to deliver a
consistent user experience,” said Adam Leach, practice leader with Ovum’s
Devices & Platforms practice. “Standards-based management solutions like Red
Bend’s vRapid Mobile are important to giving service providers control over
managing software in a consistent way across platforms. Service providers that
can strategically manage the software assets of mobile devices will be able to
generate more revenue from services and applications and increase brand
loyalty.”
vRapid Mobile Software
Management Client is Red Bend’s first product designed for service providers and
is the latest addition to the company’s industry-leading vRapid Mobile suite.
Working with Red Bend’s Software Management Server, the new product allows
service providers to:
- Centrally monitor inventory of applications purchased through app
stores or side-loaded, to gain valuable insight into consumer behavior and
preferences; - Deploy branded application packs with a consistent user experience to
unlocked handsets; - Provision new services to existing subscribers without depending on
handset replacements cycles; - Install and lifecycle manage revenue-generating applications;
and - Perform efficient application and OS updates to provide new features
and improvements.
vRapid Mobile Software Management Client can be
independently downloaded over the air to handsets, or pre-installed in
cooperation with the device manufacturer or platform owner. It is the first
standards-based solution to manage both built-in and user-downloaded
applications and to optimize the size of the application updates to minimize
bandwidth and ensure frequent and fast installation. The
software:
- Supports the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) Software Component Management
Object (SCOMO) and is the only
SCOMO client to also manage firmware as a full image or as
components; - Is
the first active management client with smart logic to use native platform
installers combined with Red Bend’s own update agent for compound management
tasks involving multiple software types and dependencies; - Comes with Red Bend’s Software Management Server as part of an
end-to-end solution, with the flexibility to integrate with any existing OMA DM
back-end system; and - Works with Red Bend’s award-winning device management (DM) client, vDirect Mobile, or any
standards-based DM client.
“Mobile operators refuse to be restricted by any one
vendor or platform, nearly ensuring the ecosystem’s ongoing diversity.
This need for independence requires simplified and scalable ways to manage
mobile software as smartphones reach the mass market,” said
Yoram Salinger, CEO of Red Bend Software. “By offering a single
point of control to manage software across mobile devices, Red Bend is helping
service providers to increase the penetration rate of new services and
applications from day one.”
vRapid
Mobile Software Management Client will be available in Q2 for Android, followed
by support for Brew Mobile Platform, LiMo and Symbian.
