Openwave Systems, a software maker specialising in mobile services,
and Web hosting company Verisign have bundled their products to
deliver an instant messaging platform to mobile phone operators,
the companies announced.
Verisign will host Openwave's mobile instant messaging product and
function as an outsourcing partner for mobile operators.
Openwave and Verisign will also work together to facilitate
messaging between different US operator networks, using Verisign's
intercarrier messaging service, and sell Openwave's Mobile
Messaging Gateway to operators, said Danny Winokur, director of
strategic alliances for Openwave.
The Openwave mobile instant messaging product turns a mobile phone
into an instant-messaging client. It either SMS, which offers
limited functionality, or WAP, offering near-PC instant messaging
functionality, Openwave said.
The hosted service for operators should be available by mid-July
and will likely be charged on a per month, per subscriber basis,
according to Winokur, who added that operators can also opt to
install the Openwave software on their own network.
"We expect that top-tier operators will, ultimately, want to have
it [mobile instant messaging software] sit on their own network.
However, right now there are operators with a time to market
urgency and operating in a capital constrained environment.
Outsourcing is attractive as a bridge to get them to where it makes
sense to offer it [mobile instant messaging] on their own," said
Winokur.
Text messaging has become one of the main revenue generators for
mobile phone operators, especially in Europe and Asia. Profit
margins on text-message transmissions are high and users cannot
seem to get enough of text messaging. So far, technological
barriers have inhabited the growth of SMS in North America..
New forms of messaging, which includes mobile instant messaging,
but also multimedia messaging, are touted as ways for operators to
generate even more revenue out of messaging services. Other
companies offering messaging platforms include CMG Wireless Data
Solutions, Logica and Nokia.