Mobile data software developer Volantis is targeting carriers with an application that delivers updated, personalized Internet information to mobile phones.
The company plans to unveil BuzzCast, a white-label offering that allows users to create a profile and build a “home screen” of content such as financial news, entertainment headlines and sports scores that is pushed to the phone at predetermined intervals. The application is designed to spur mobile data uptake as it reduces the number of click-throughs and menus users must suffer through to browse the wireless Web and shop for content.
Information is pushed to subscribers through a scrolling onscreen headline that links to a short summary and an image. Users can click on one of several icons to access full articles and images and use Volantis’ existing software framework to tailor content to specific handsets.
“Mobile data is stuck,” said John Beale, Volantis’ vice president of marketing. “Content owners find it completely unacceptable that there is a somewhat less compelling experience for mobile compared to the Internet.”
Volantis has gained traction among both network operators and content providers with its delivery platform, which is used for both on-deck and off-deck activity. The 180-employee company’s carrier customers include Cingular Wireless L.L.C., Hutchison 3 and Spain’s Telefonica Moviles-operators Volantis is likely to target with the new offering.
The company has yet to notch an operator deal with the new application, but hopes to announce customers early next year.
Conceptually, the product builds on Cingular’s MediaNet service, a browser-based application launched last year. MediaNet, which is powered by InfoSpace Inc., offers 16 “channels” of pre-selected, automatically delivered content; users can drill down for more information.
From a carrier perspective, BuzzCast-like MediaNet-may offer the best of two worlds: while it allows users to customize their wireless Web experience, the operator can ultimately control which content providers users can access. An operator could make it easy to access a wide variety of sites without giving preference to, say, Google Inc.’s services, which many carriers see as a threat.
And Volantis’ new offering supports mobile marketing campaigns, allowing operators to subsidize the cost with advertising dollars. While most high-usage data packages cost about $20 a month, a carrier could offer the service at a deep discount to users willing to accept marketing messages on their handsets.
“What’s going to be interesting is how the carriers present this in terms of a business model,” said Beale. “How they price this.”
