New York City-based software developer Ex Machina Inc. wants to expand the utility of paging networks by using paging carriers’ system capacity to broadcast critical corporate information-especially during off-peak hours.
Founded in 1988 to develop and market products merging mobile computing with wireless technologies, Ex Machina has introduced several paging products. The company’s Notify! software line lets people send text messages and data files from personal computers to alphanumeric pagers, including PC card pagers in notebook computers. “For alphanumeric pagers, there is, for all practical purposes, no alternative to computer entry,” noted David Rose, Ex Machina’s founder, chairman and chief executive officer.
The company took user-friendliness a step further with its Reach Me! Wireless Business Card, which allows paging subscribers to distribute alphanumeric messaging software-containing the subscriber’s name, phone number and pager identification number-to their clients or customers for about $3 a copy. The company noted that while there are more than 20 million paging subscribers in the United States, there may be as many as 100 million people who are trying to reach them.
As the paging industry advances from tone-only to digital display to alphanumeric technology, it also is evolving from person-to-person to computer-to-person to computer-to-computer messaging-with the content of the message becoming ever more information rich.
“Business success in the future will be determined by accurate and timely distribution of information to mobile work forces,” Ex Machina said.
“We can deliver that information wirelessly-from one to one, or one to many-so users receive it automatically, without any action on their parts. It’s the closest thing to telepathy in technology today,” Rose said.
Ex Machina hopes to keep pace with this evolution by introducing its AirMedia line of corporate wireless communications solutions and consulting services to turn paging systems into comprehensive wireless information networks.
“AirMedia allows companies and organizations to act on this need by broadcasting or narrowcasting data…sending targeted information feeds to individuals and developing custom wireless data solutions,” Ex Machina said.
AirMedia is composed of three initiatives.
AirMedia Information Services delivers real-time news and information to subscribers-including headline news, features, sports, weather and financial information as well as customized news feeds.
AirMedia Consulting provides customized wireless solutions to meet its client’s specific needs. For example, Ex Machina said it recently teamed with BellSouth Corp.’s MobileComm paging subsidiary to develop a wireless distribution system for broadcasting results at the 1996 Olympic Games.
AirMedia Solutions is a client/server software suite based on Microsoft Corp.’s Windows operating system that allows corporations to simultaneously broadcast the latest information to mobile workers and incorporate that data into the appropriate files on their computers, the company said. Updates can include pricing information, daily inventory figures, sales presentations, periodic reports and revised technical documents.
The company emphasizes that the updated information can be sent to people in the field “even when their computers are turned off.”
“What pagers have done for personal communications, AirMedia will do for personal computer-based communications-constantly updating the laptop or desktop computer, through a paging card, with the latest information, just as a traditional pager keeps its owner up-to-date with information,” said Senior Product Manager Tim von Kaenel.
And by combining the broadcast capability of paging with the off-peak reception of the PC card pager, Rose said Ex Machina can help paging carriers deliver data at the lowest cost.
