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Air2Web Extends Wireless Capability to Europe and Asia Pacific with Two-Way SMS and I-mode and J-phone Standards Support; Air2Web Opens European Headquarters
URL(s): Air2Web
ATLANTA and AMSTERDAM, Netherlands, March 19, 2001--Air2Web, the leading wireless platform provider, has launched version 2.1 of the Mobile Internet Platform to deliver wireless applications to the global market. Version 2.1 includes international support for two-way Short Message Service (SMS), I-mode, and J-phone wireless standards.
Two-way capabilities are deployed immediately for the United Kingdom and Spain and will be extended to the rest of Europe by mid-2001.
In parallel with the launch of Version 2.1, Air2Web has opened its European headquarters just outside of Amsterdam. The European operations are being headed by director of business development for Europe, Harry Drenth, who brings two decades of IT experience to the position. During his 20 years in the IT industry, Denth has worked in many facets of the business.
Prior to joining Air2Web, Denth founded a consulting firm, which focused on mobile systems management and data synchronization. His company developed products to interconnect mobile applications to SAP systems.
"Air2Web has established itself as the leading Mobile Internet Platform provider in the United States, and we are rapidly working to attain the same recognition in the European and Asian-Pacific markets," said Jay Sheth, vice president of International Alliances for Air2Web.
"We began laying the groundwork in January with the opening of our Asian-Pacific headquarters in India and the establishment of our International Strategic Alliance Program which includes such channel partners as the U.K.'s Red Brigade, Finland's Yomi Media, and India's Mascot Systems. Opening the Air2Web European headquarters just puts us one step closer to this goal."
Air2Web's wireless platform, accessed through an XML-based API, enables businesses to create, deploy and deliver enterprise applications such as ERP, CRM and Supply Chain Management (SCM) solutions to their customers and employees using any digital wireless device. This includes (SMS) and Internet capable (WAP) phones, pagers and pervasive computing devices such as Palms.
Extensions to Platform Enable International Deployment:
The Mobile Internet Platform has been extended to allow applications to reflect country, language and character set preferences to deliver and accept content that is localized. In addition, support has been added for XML markup languages
popular outside the United States including cHTML (Compact Hypertext Markup Language) and MML (Mobile Markup Language).
Air2Web's international support of two-way SMS allows application deployment that takes advantage of user-initiated two-way text conversations.
United Parcel Service, the world's largest express carrier and package delivery company and one of Air2Web's U.S.-based customers, expects to use this support to expand their wireless package tracking applications internationally. This
will allow UPS to take advantage of the users' ability to initiate a text-based inquiry with two-way SMS.
"The growth in SMS traffic worldwide, predicted by groups like the GSM Association, is staggering," said Sanjoy Malik, president and chief executive officer of Air2Web. "With 200 billion anticipated messages in 2001, it is essential that Air2Web extend its two-way capability out to the international markets.
"We recognize the importance of the European mobile data market, not only to our future customers but to our current multinational clients such as UPS and Digital Insight. Therefore, we have made it a priority to support both two-way and one-way SMS.
"Additionally, Air2Web wants to be positioned to take advantage of the tremendous growth around the Japanese I-mode and J-phone wireless devices. According to a recent report, of NTT DoCoMo's 30 million Internet customers, roughly 8 million use the I-mode service," continued Malik.
Other New Enhancements in Version 2.1:
Wireless Provisioning -- this component enables end-users to provision their wireless device online from an Internet-enabled device (a WAP phone or pervasive computing device such as a PALM). In places like Japan and parts of
Europe where PCs aren't as prevalent, this component enables a user to provision their WAP phone or PDA right from the wireless device itself.
Anonymous Browsing -- this component allows end-users to browse an application (which is less proprietary), via their WAP phone or PDA, without provisioning their wireless device. For example, an organization might want their employees to wirelessly view the latest company news. The employee simply enters the URL for the "news application" into their wireless device, and they have instant access.
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