In the world of Mobile Web 2.0 applications, ShoZu has been an early winner. When it was launched last October, it was the first widely distributed application to support Photo sharing directly from the mobile. and promotion on Flickr and other sites gave it an early boost.
Cognima CTO Andy Tiller wowed the attendees of Mobile Monday London in March of this year with a live demo of ShoZu, uploading photos to Flickr and then viewing comments that were added by audience members shortly afterward. But the field of mobile media-sharing applications and services is becoming evermore crowded.
Yahoo! has come out with their own Zonetag (which incorporates some nifty location-aware features) and start-up Vizrea is coming up fast from behind with their own sharing application. Nokia is also bundling their own Flickr upload application on new smart phones.
But ShoZu has the jump on all these guys. That’s because the technology behind it is the tried and tested true data replication technology that Cognima first developed in 2001, as a white label solution, and they have been refining it ever since. ShoZu also works on more phones that its competitors (not just Series-60 like everything else I just mentioned). ShoZu also has more features and works with multiple sharing sites, not just Flickr. But where do they go from here?
ShoZu 3.0, due out soon, will reportedly include the “ZuCasts” feature which have been previewed in a release available for download since April. ZuCasts uses the same replication technology to bring specially prepared video and audio podcasts down to your device, in the background. ZuCast already have content partnerships in place with Warner Music and others. ShoZu 3.0 will also make it easier to attach to more sharing services directly from the phone.
Finally, ShoZu will be looking to announce some handset bundling deals shortly, which will give it some further distribution. They are also working on a white label version of ShoZu, which curiously brings them back to their original business model, selling data replication technology into operators.