Red Bend Software Announces Fourth Quarter Achievements; Company’s Mobile Software Reaches 80 Million Consumers Worldwide
1Global Adoption of Red Bend’s FOTA Solution and Market Need to Flexibly Manage Mobile Phone Software Position Company for Significant Growth in 2007
Red Bend Software, the market leader in Mobile Software Management and Firmware Over-the-Air (FOTA) updating solutions for mobile phones, today announced that its market-leading FOTA client software is now embedded in 58 handset models used by 80 million consumers worldwide, affording the company 34 percent market share of all FOTA-enabled phones shipping. With its FOTA client software increasingly adopted by manufacturers and deployed globally by operators, Red Bend forecasts that its vCurrent® Mobile software will be embedded in 100 million mobile phones by the end of first quarter 2007.
Red Bend concluded 2006 with vCurrent Mobile embedded in 58 handset models, compared to six at the close of 2005 -- an eight-fold year-over-year increase. In addition, vCurrent Mobile is now available in 80 million mobile phones, compared to 10 million in 2005 -- an annual increase of seven-fold. This skyrocketing rise in customer adoption helped fuel the growth of the FOTA market overall in 2006. Red Bend played a leading role in this market growth due to the ease-of-integration and superior performance of its solution, which propelled manufacturers and operators to deploy FOTA in record numbers to the mass market.
"FOTA has become an essential asset for new mobile phones, and is projected to be embedded in 50 percent of all mobile devices by 2008. The ability to deliver software improvements directly to consumers’ mobile phones greatly enhances the mobile user experience," said Matt Lewis, Director of Research and Consulting at ARCchart, a U.K.-based analyst firm, which recently published a free research paper on FOTA [http://www.arcchart.com/fota]. "In 2006 Red Bend emerged as the leader in FOTA client software, and has proven to be a key player in shaping the Mobile Software Management market."
"The wireless industry will remember 2006 as the year that the FOTA market took off, and the year that Red Bend emerged as the market leader," said Yoram Salinger, CEO of Red Bend Software. "With broad support from major industry players, Red Bend is improving the way that manufacturers and platform providers bring new mobile phones to market, the way operators launch and deliver new mobile services, and the way consumers personalize the features and applications on their mobile phones."
New FOTA-Enabled Handsets Strengthen Red Bend’s Market Leadership
In the fourth quarter, Red Bend continued its leadership worldwide in FOTA-enabled handsets and Mobile Software Management. Global manufacturers including Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications, Sharp and NEC selected Red Bend’s vCurrent Mobile software as they brought 17 new mobile phones to market. To date, Red Bend’s FOTA software has performed more than 1.25 million software improvements for mobile consumers in 97 countries.
Key market trends in the mobile industry and in consumers’ use of mobile phones position Red Bend for significant market opportunities and growth in 2007.
Today’s mobile phones have sophisticated software architectures, offering advanced features such as digital cameras, music players and Web browsers. Phones can have 128 MB of flash memory to support tens of applications and hundreds of software components. Red Bend’s patented vCurrent Mobile FOTA software, interoperable with standards-based Mobile Device Management (DM) servers, enables mobile phone manufacturers and wireless operators to efficiently and reliably deliver firmware version updates over-the-air to phones already in consumers’ hands, keeping handsets up-to-date with the latest features and software improvements.
"Consumers currently personalize their mobile phones with ringtones, games and wallpapers. Soon, they will want to personalize their handsets by selecting the software features, applications and services that fit their lifestyles," said Salinger. "With our ongoing innovations in Mobile Software Management and new product introductions planned for 2007, Red Bend is empowering the mobile value chain to meet this consumer need through greater flexibility and control over managing a phone’s software assets. As a result, consumers will become more attached to their mobile phones and their service providers -- benefiting the entire industry."
About Red Bend Software
