BOSTON-Siemens AG said it will jump into the over-the-air updating game through a new deal with OTA company Red Bend.
Siemens licensed Red Bend’s vCurrentMobile technology for use in its handsets, a move Red Bend said will allow Siemens to send out software fixes to its phones over the air. Such technology will eliminate the need for Siemens’ mobile-phone customers to return their devices to retail stores for software repairs.
Over-the-air updating technology has become one of the hottest areas in the wireless industry in the past few months. Motorola Inc. last year signed a deal with Bitfone Corp. for OTA technology, and NEC Corp., Sharp Corp. and Panasonic have licensed OTA technology from DoOnGo Technologies Inc. Carriers including NTT DoCoMo and SK Telecom have announced plans to launch OTA updating services. Even Openwave Systems Inc. recently introduced an over-the-air updating technology.
Red Bend said its new agreement with Siemens will give the handset maker the ability to securely repair on-device firmware and application software over the air, making the repairs transparent to customers and cutting service costs. Red Bend said its software also will allow Siemens the capability to quickly send out new services to its devices.
Red Bend just this week signed a similar licensing agreement with IXI Mobile, which is working to sell its wireless device technology to the world’s handset makers.
Founded in 1999, Red Bend hails from the Internet world. America Online Inc. uses the company’s technology to remotely update its instant-messaging software, and Sun Microsystems Inc. uses it in its operating system upgrades. Red Bend’s vCurrentMobile technology allows mobile-phone makers to send software over the air to mobile phones, much like AOL, Sun and Red Bend’s other customers do over the Internet. Wireless players could use the technology to fix mobile-phone software glitches or even introduce new applications and services.
Once installed in a mobile phone, Red Bend’s technology determines the “delta” in the phone’s software-the difference between the old version of the software and the new and improved version. Thus, only the software delta needs to be sent over the air to update the phone’s software.
Red Bend to date has raised about $10 million in venture funding.
