Synchronica (AIM: SYNC) has unveiled its next-generation messaging system, Mobile Gateway 5 - a complete mobile messaging suite available to all consumers and business users regardless of which handset they use. February is proving a busy month for Synchronica, as this latest product launch follows the roll-out of its low-cost MessagePhone product which uses the Mobile Gateway technology.
The latest version of the Mobile Gateway product enables operators to offer Push Email and Synchronization, Instant Messaging (IM), Social Networking Services (SNS) and Web-Feeds.
"With Mobile Gateway 5, we are providing a one-stop solution for next-generation mobile messaging”, Synchronica CEO Carsten Brinkschulte commented. “Mobile Gateway 5 provides operators particularly in emerging markets with a solution that can significantly increase revenues from data traffic, and can help to combat the #1 problem - churn".
According to Synchronica the Mobile Gateway enables operators to create their own Email and Instant Messaging communities, as well as access existing facilities such as Facebook and Google Mail/Talk, which it believes creates more ‘stickiness’, reducing churn among users.
One of the key features of Mobile Gateway is its client-less solution; it works on virtually any handset which ensures a fast take-up in a large addressable market, Synchronica said. “While our competitors are busy replicating the social network sites with proprietary clients for a rather limited number of high-end devices, we are using a client-less, industry standards based approach to connect users to Email, IM, SNS and Web-Feeds - offering a true, mass-market solution with the largest possible addressable market and service uptake”, Brinkschulte stated.
Like Synchronica’s other products such as the low-cost MessagePhone, Mobile Gateway 5 will target emerging markets. The company noted a recent report from Frost & Sullivan, which estimated that in Africa and Latin America total market for Mobile Instant Messaging, will have almost 500 million users by 2015. According to Synchronica that level of growth would represent a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 54% over the next five to six years in these regions.
This month Synchronica officially launched its new MessagePhone product, which utilises the Mobile Gateway infrastructure to build an entry-level push email device. The MessagePhone is an affordable mobile device which brings email, messaging, document viewing, and web browsing together. According to Synchronica the product is a true messaging-oriented handset, which sold at a fraction of the cost of similar, high-end smartphones.
Synchronica had already secured three orders for the MessagePhone product before its official launch on the 10th February. The mobile device has been jointly-developed with Korean manufacturing partner, KC Mobile.