GetMobio is a cellphone based application platform that brings a lot of advanced applications to non-smart phones. They’ve been releasing a steady stream of new applications since launching earlier this year. They have applications for movies, trivia, cheap gas, and more. Now they’re releasing a recipe app that makes it easy for those not blessed with an iPhone to find meals while on the go. MobileCrunch has covered several other mobile content platforms such as Bluepulse, Widset, and ZenZui. → Read More
Mobio, which we’ve covered previously, is launching the public beta of its mobile application platform today. They’re pitching themselves as a “lifestyle platform” to consumers, where you can access all kinds of data on the go, such as restaurants, weather, and flight schedules. However, to developers, Mobio is a mashup platform, enabling developers to weave together all kinds of information into a single application. The Mobio platform is not open to all developers yet, but they have already developed 50 of their own free applications. One example is their movie time search engine, where you can find the closest movie theater, map directions to it, and buy your tickets from within your phone. See some demos here. The platform is a fairly light J2ME application, 220kb, when compared with beefier mobile applications from Yahoo, 770kb, and works on some non-smartphones like the Razor (here’s a full list of supported phones). Blackberry support coming soon. Mobio applications will push most of processing weight on to Mobio’s servers, requiring only tiny (sometimes 2kb) downloads to add new applications. The installation of these applications will be handled by Mobio. Users will be able to manage these Mobio applications on a web account. Mobio is backed by $9 million from InterWest Partners and Storm Ventures. They recently did a deal with 9 Indian carriers, which gave some of their applications placement on about 70% of Indian phones. In the U.S, Mobio is off deck. Getting on deck position can sometimes cost upwards of $1 million. MobileCrunch has covered several other mobile content platforms such as Bluepulse, Widset, and ZenZui. Blupulse is a mobile social networking application that works on nearly any phone, and which we raved about previously. Widset is a disappointing RSS reader from Nokia and ZenZui is a Microsoft-backed attempt to widgetize webpages to ease web navigation. → Read More
Mobile phone application company bluepulse released version 2.0 today to rave reviews on our sister site, MobileCrunch. Blogger Oliver Starr could not say enough about the new platform. “I’ve seen quite a number of mobile applications in the last twelve months and many have been very comprehensive but I do not believe that I’ve seen a single platform that had as many different functions as bluepulse 2.0; especially not one with the diversity of widgets or the ability to run on so many phones,” he writes. Bluepulse 2.0 is a full-fledged multimedia platform that allows users to socially network, create detailed user profiles, chat, text, and link to Flickr, Gmail, Digg, and more. In fact, the Digg widget allows readers to read news, log in, Digg stories, participate in comment forums, and blog and email stories. Starr writes that this mobile application is groundbreaking for two reasons: because it works on virtually any phone, and because of a combination of the user profiles and the broadcast messaging capability which will allow for “highly targeted broadcast mobile advertising.” → Read More
People are calling Australia-based BluePulse the “meebo of cell phones” and they may be right – although it is also a platform that allows developers to build phone access to just about any internet application as well. The engine behind Bluepulse is platform and tool set they have created called the OADP which claims to “allows developers to develop mobile applications without having to worry about supporting the hundreds of different devices available on the market, connectivity issues, distribution and billing.” The test applications they’ve built on the platform are pretty compelling. The headliner is access to ICQ, MSN and Yahoo instant messaging applications. They also have an application to access tv and movie guides. Oliver Starr at MobileCrunch has tested the software and says “Bluepulse will be one of the first category dominant players in mobile 2.0″. Also see the comments to that post, where a founder of Bluepulse explains their revenue model and other aspects of the business. → Read More
