CTIA Wireless IT: operator & enterprise software news roundup

- Gary Thayer, Editor

September 27-29, 2005 -- (MobileVillage) -- The semi-annual CTIA Wireless IT & Entertainment show runs this week at San Francisco's Moscone Convention Center, so it's no surprise that exhibitors are announcing new products. Below is a compilation of mobile content related products targeted at mobile operators and/or large enterprises. (For end-user software news from CTIA, click here.)

Action Engine announced the availability of version 4.0 of its Action Engine Mobile Application Platform (MAP). The newest release adds support for Java-powered mobile devices, a new multimedia user interface, and decreased memory requirements to facilitate over-the-air downloads. Other improvements include the addition of more open standards, such as XHTML and WML2. Action Engine MAP 4.0 is available to customers this month. For more information, see actionengine.com or the company's summary page on MobileVillage.

Ericsson annoucned version 5.1 of its Ericssson Mobile Organizer (EMO) software that offers users of Symbian and Windows Mobile smartphones or PDAs secure 'push' access to Personal Information Management (PIM) applications including e-mail, contacts, calendar and meeting requests. EMO enables mobile users to keep up to date without any need for proprietary hardware, special devices or operator tie-ins, according to Ericsson. The new version adds real-time, over-the-air synchronization of contacts, searching the enterprise's global address list for e-mail addresses and accepting or declining meeting requests.

EMO 5.1 Enterprise and Professional editions support Microsoft Exchange and Lotus Domino environments. As well, EMO 5.1 supports security features such as end-to-end data encryption, device data encryption and authentication, according to Ericsson. EMO can also be deployed together with Ericsson's Mobile Device Management solution, which enables all PIM data to be completely removed 'over the air' in the event of loss or theft.

Intellisync introduced Intellisync Unified Messaging, a software platform targeted at mobile operators and large enterprises that makes any type of mobile communication -- email, voice, text or instant message (IM) -- accessible on a single interface on any device in any location, with "One-Touch" access. The software will be available in November.

For the consumer, the software allows one-stop access to popular IM clients including AOL, Google, Jabber, ICQ, Microsoft and Yahoo!. For corporate instant messaging, Intellisync says it plans to support the major corporate IM solutions, including Microsoft Live Communications Server and IBM Lotus Sametime.

Intellisync Unified Messaging also informs users when other users are available and willing to communicate in a way that extends beyond current "presence-based" capabilities of other offerings in the worldwide mobile device industry. The software enables IT and security managers to lock down IM access to conform to specific security policies and regulatory requirements, according to the Intellisync.

India based Jataayu Software announced a beta version of its Instant Messaging & Presence Services (IMPS) platform. Jataayu's IMPS server beta has full Client-Server Protocol (CSP) & Server-Server Protocol (SSP) features as supported by OMA IMPS ver1.2 specifications. The CSP provides presence-enabled or Instant Messaging clients access to Instant Messaging and presence services servers. SSP provides the communication and interaction means between different Instant Messaging and Presence Services domains or different service providers, according to the company.

Although the beta won't be released until starting Oct 20, 2005, interested users can pre-register now at jataayusoft.com by providing their email with a request for information. The beta service is planned to be kept available for a month, initially.

MobiTV introduced MobiTV2, the latest version of its mobile broadcase platform that lets mobile phone users watch or listen to live television, video on-demand, made-for-mobile content and radio. MobiTV2 adds MobiRadio, a new radio service with more than 50 channels of commercial free digital music. The new platform also features a new programming guide combined with improved audio and video quality, according to MobiTV. The platform also integrates with carrier location based services such as sports packages, local weather, traffic and news, and offers user-customizable skins.

Sybase (NYSE:SY) has unveiled the Carrier Edition of its dynamic Web content mobilization data service offering, Sybase mFolio. In addition to enhancing access to regular HTML and RSS-based content from the Web, the Carrier Edition of mFolio adds features that enable wireless subscribers to access audio and video podcasts, photo sharing sites, and program customizable requests for content update alerts. Sybase says that mFolio Carrier Edition supports any Web-based or WAP-enabled feature phone, smart phone or PDA currently available.

mFolio's newest feature, Content Alerting, similar to Blackberry's e-mail push alerts, automatically notifies subscribers when requested content -- such as commercial news, stock market information, traffic and sports or podcasts and Web sites -- has been updated and is ready for viewing. In addition, the ability to cache content at the edge of the carrier's data network means that subscribers can view this content much faster using mFolio.

For more information on Sybase mFolio, see sybase.com. For more information on Sybase, see the company's summary page on MobileVillage.

Tira Wireless has updated its Tira Jump Product Suite that aims to enable content providers to control priorities, resources and digital assets in the deployment of mobile content. The most significant changes in this release are in the Jump Workflow Manager, which is now available in two different versions: one for publishers and one for software services companies - with distinct configurable workflows for the two different processes. The Jump Workflow Manager can now also be used to manage the deployment of BREW games and applications - this is in addition to existing support for mobile Java.

Other new features in the updated Tira Jump Product Suite are the addition of two new modules: the Tira "Over the Air" Server, which facilitates the downloading of applications onto devices to speed testing; and the Tira Automated Verification Server (AVS), which is a fully integrated mobile Java testing tool that ensures that basic MIDP errors are detected prior to application adaptation and optimization.

The new release of the Tira Jump Product Suite also includes integrated and enhanced reporting, which provides project managers with an at-a-glance view of project status, and the ability to assess team productivity. With support for outsourcing and multi-organization views, content providers also gain greater control over work orders assigned to outsourced porting, QA testing and certification services partners. For more information see tirawireless.com.

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