msmobiles.com - Cellular News - The latest in mobile technology news from Rococo Software - the maker of Bluetooth software tools for Java

The latest in mobile technology news from Rococo Software - the maker of Bluetooth software tools for Java
April 28, 2004;
They even launch mobility blog - it looks like that not only Microsoft is blogging about mobility. Apart from that: a lot of interesting news bits from cell phone industry....

Visit Rococo Software at the ICT Expo in Dublin

Come and see us at booth #B16 at the ICT Expo at the RDS in Dublin on April 28 and 29, 2004 for your chance to win a FREE PDA. For more info, visit www.ictexpo.ie.

EDITORIAL: 3GSM SHOWS PROMISE FOR TELECOMS INDUSTRY by Sean O'Sullivan, Rococo CEO

GSM in Cannes was a key bellwether for the Telecom industry. The last few years at the 3GSM Conference have been muted, if well-attended affairs, as the industry struggled to get over the post-bubble hangover. There was welcome relief among the participants as this year's show was definitely more upbeat. Attendance was up to 29,000 people (from 25,000 last year), exhibition space sold out well in advance of the show, and a cautious but-optimistic buzz was in the air. Some highlights from the show include: Operator Sentiment

While there's an ongoing focus on cost containment and margin enhancement from existing products, there were genuine signs of interest in new revenue-enhancing products and services. The industry announced its one-billionth subscriber at the show, helped in no small part by the astonishing adoption rate in China, which resulted in China Mobile receiving the overall GSM Association Award. There was some discussion on where the next billion subscribers will come from, given that some of the mature mobile markers are nearly at saturation in terms of penetration. Most hopes are being pinned on China and India.

Push to Talk Over Cellular (PoC or PTT - you choose!)

As the industry is running short on acronyms, 'Push to Talk Over Cellular' is now being shortened to PoC or PTT, depending on who you read. This was a hot topic across the show with many announcements from equipment suppliers and operators about PTT initiatives. The consensus is that PTT will become a standard feature on handsets during the next 12-18 months. Show announcements from Nokia, Sonim, Siemens and Motorola backed this up.

Enterprise Applications

There was a lot of focus on data applications that work over existing 2.5G networks, and can be deployed in the near term while the 3G build-out continues. Much of the initial focus is on mobile email solutions aimed at SMEs, but we also saw strong interest in instant messaging solutions (which can cannibalise SMS revenue), and richer enterprise applications beyond the basic Personal Information Management (PIM) functionality. It seems mobile access to CRM and ERP systems will be a strong potential source of data revenue for the next few years. Announcements from Nokia/IBM, Microsoft and RIM all illustrate the potential in this area.

Rococo demonstrated one such Enterprise application at the show. Our Microsoft Outlook-based demo showed how users can set up and schedule multi-party conference calls directly from within Microsoft Outlook. This application, based on OSA/Parlay, was very well received and generated much discussion.

There must be something in the water...

Three of four of the companies nominated for Best Mobile Application Developer award at the 3GSM Association awards ceremony were Irish. The nominees were Macalla Software (Ireland), TTPCom Ltd (UK), XIAM Ltd (Ireland) and Valista (formerly Network365), also based in Ireland. Valista, a supplier of electronic and mobile payments software, won the award for the second time in three years. When we caught up with Valista CEO, Raomal Perera, he said, "Perhaps it's not surprising, as there was a strong Irish presence at the show, with over twenty companies exhibiting on the Ireland stand. These companies combined are positioning Ireland at the forefront of the global software industry."

ROCOCO LAUNCHES MOBILEFRONTIER OPERATOR AT 3GSM

At the 3GSM Conference, Rococo Software and AePONA announced the launch of MobileFrontier Operator, a suite of software applications that uses standardised OSA/Parlay APIs and runs on AePONA's Causeway platform. MobileFrontier Operator is designed for Telecoms Operators using OSA/Parlay to deliver added-value applications to Enterprise customers.

"There's no question that OSA/Parlay is gaining significant momentum with Telecoms Operators. With over 60 deployments or trials of OSA/Parlay gateways already underway, Operators are turning their attention to sourcing applications that can add significant value for customers. MobileFrontier is designed to address this need. Analysts estimate that the OSA/Parlay market will reach $1.5 billion by 2006," said Sean O'Sullivan, Rococo CEO.

Rococo's MobileFrontier Operator product line is made up of four applications:

* Scheduled Conference Call application uses OSA/Parlay to enable an end-user to schedule conference calls directly from Microsoft Outlook. Subscribers can use this application to select conference call participants and arrange, change or cancel conference calls from within the Outlook user interface, dramatically simplifying the creation and use of conference call facilities.

* Hunt Group specifies a set of numbers to call when a user's phone does not answer.

* Corporate Address Book triggers an automated response with additional contact information when a call does not reach an employee's phone.

* The Boomerang application simplifies reverse call set-up and automates the reverse billing process.

Check out these applications at: http://www.rococosoft.com/products/operator.html or email info@rococosoft.com. For the latest information on OSA/Parlay, download a Rococo white paper today.

MOBILITY BLOG UP AND RUNNING

Rococo's new Weblog is up and running at www.rococosoft.com/weblog. Our weblog - a mix of links, commentary and information - will provide you with the most current information on mobility technology issues, opportunities and trends.

The Rococo Mobility Blog will make it easier for you to stay 'au current' with links, articles and postings from our engineers, partners, clients and, of course, you. Here's a taste of the topics currently under discussion on Rococo's blog:

* Do's and Dont's of Mobility Solutions

* What is OSA/Parlay?

* Mobility Solutions: The Weird and the Wonderful

Visit Rococo's blog today at www.rococosoft.com/weblog

FMI MOBILISES STAFF WITH ROCOCO SOLUTION

Rococo Software and Field Management Ireland (FMI) are working together to develop a mobility solution for collecting data quickly and easily in the field. FMI manages projects that often involve a large number of employees spread over a large geographic area. Almost all of the activities FMI carries out for clients - running product promotions, merchandising, price auditing - involve the collection of data in the field.

Rococo's MobileFrontier Field Survey is a software application for designing and generating data capture forms for field merchandising, field audits or any field data capture application. Surveys and questionnaires can be easily designed and pushed down to handheld devices using MobileFrontier Field Survey.

Using Rococo's MobileFrontier Field Survey application, staff in FMI's head office can design customised survey forms and questionnaires for customers and send those to field operatives via a handheld device. When a customer visit is scheduled the appropriate survey is sent to the field representative. The field rep completes the survey or questionnaire and sends the information back to head office via Rococo's secure MobileFrontier server. The information is then immediately available for inclusion in customer reports.

"We take the collection of data very seriously and place a huge emphasis on attention to detail. Accuracy of data collection is crucial, but the turnaround time is also key," said Laura Drumgoole, Head of Information Solutions at FMI. "Using Rococo's technology, our field reps enter their calls directly on the web via handheld devices, allowing ourselves and our clients instant access to results. The software also allows us to build validity checks into the system to check data as it is entered so that we can control the accuracy of results."

FMI's mobility solution provides customers with greater accuracy, better outcomes and more meaningful results faster and easier than traditional data collection. "Rococo's mobility solution definitely gives us a competitive edge," said Drumgoole.

For more information about MobileFrontier Field Survey, visit our MobileFrontier Survey home page. To learn more about FMI's field marketing services go to www.fmi.ie.

OSA/PARLAY MAKES INROADS WITH TELECOMS OPERATORS

At the 3GSM Conference in Cannes there was increased interest in standardised OSA/Parlay APIs. Although awareness is growing, Telecoms Operators still have a lot of questions about how the emerging standard will positively impact their industry.

If you're an operator interested in OSA/Parlay, you've come to the right place. Rococo has an OSA/Parlay white paper available for free on our Publications Page (www.rococosoft.com/publications/index.html).

* An introduction to SDP and OSA/Parlay - Provides a basic background of OSA/Parlay technology, the needs it addresses and the current state of the market.

Download the Rococo white paper today to learn more about the OSA/Parlay standard. For more OSA/Parlay resources, visit our OSA/Parlay information page (www.rococosoft.com/services/index.html).

TWO NEW JAVA/BLUETOOTH PHONES HIT THE MARKET

The Nokia 6600 and Sony Ericsson P900 mobile phones are the latest JSR82 products to hit the market, showing continued demand for products that support Java/Bluetooth standard APIs. "We continue to see a steady demand for JSR82 supported products," said Karl McCabe, Rococo CTO. "It's great to see market growth in this area and we're expecting more JSR82 products to appear on the market soon."

Rococo Software is a leader in Java/Bluetooth development. Rococo's Impronto product line helps wireless software developers build Bluetooth applications that allow mobile phones, laptops and other wireless devices to communicate freely using the short-range, wireless technology. Rococo played an integral role in defining the JSR82 standard, and is a chosen leader in Java/Bluetooth development.

ROCOCO SIMULATOR GETS THUMBS UP FROM JAVA DEVELOPER'S JOURNAL

In the February issue of Java Developer's Journal, mobile technology specialist Ben Hui gives Rococo Simulator top marks for making Bluetooth application development easier in his article 'Go Wild Wirelessly with Bluetooth and Java'. Rococo's Bluetooth Simulator implements standard Java/Bluetooth APIs that simplify complicated Bluetooth development protocols and help to bring wireless technology to market faster and easier.

In his article, Hui explains that the development of Bluetooth applications is still a daunting challenge for many developers. Hui demystifies the development and design of a Bluetooth application by walking the reader through BlueChat, a program running on Rococo Simulator, to highlight important design and implementation elements of a typical Bluetooth application. His demonstration highlights the useful nature of Rococo Simulator for Bluetooth application development.

Rococo's software development products - Impronto Simulator and Impronto Developer Kit - help application developers, equipment manufacturers, OEMs and platform vendors build mobile applications quickly and easily. For more information on Rococo's Java/Bluetooth products visit www.rococosoft.com.

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