SKY MobileMedia Partners with Flextronics on Reference Handset Platform Based on Texas Instruments LoCosto(TM) Platform
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Pre-validated Production-ready Feature Phone to Reduce Time-to-market for Handset OEMs
BARCELONA, Spain, Feb. 11 / / -- SKY MobileMedia, a leading provider of applications software for the mobile handset industry, today announces that it has partnered with Flextronics, a leading Electronics Manufacturing Services (EMS) provider focused on delivering complete design, engineering and manufacturing services to OEMs, to develop a fully-tested, production ready reference handset based on TI's LoCosto(TM) single-chip GPRS hardware platform. The GSM/GPRS solution consists of the SKY-MAP(TM) Mobile Applications Software Platform pre-integrated on a form-factor reference phone that is ready to be customized and manufactured for OEM customers' handset programs.
"The combination of SKY-MAP pre-integrated with Flextronics Mobile's reference phone based on TI's LoCosto platform is a powerful solution for handset OEMs seeking to deploy a robust hardware and software platform," said Martin Fichter, Senior Vice President, Mobile Design and Technology at Flextronics. "Rapid time-to-market is essential for our customers, and this pre-integrated, pre-validated handset platform will enable OEMs to quickly launch new feature phones into diverse geographic markets."
The reference phone offers a low bill of materials (BOM) for mass-market GSM/GPRS feature phones. Pre-integrated applications, with corresponding hardware support, include call management, PIM functionality, SMS, browser, MMS, OTA client provisioning, MIDI ringtones, still camera, audio/video play and record, DRM 1.0 forward lock, USB and SD card. Additional SKY-MAP applications available for the platform include email, Java, data synchronization, and more.
As part of the reference handset program, SKY, Flextronics, and TI are cooperating to fully test the reference handset to simplify and reduce final OEM and operator acceptance testing. Handset robustness testing, lab IOT testing, and live network field testing on numerous Asian, European, and North American wireless operator networks are currently underway. This extensive system-level testing will provide OEMs with a mature, pre-validated handset solution that can be rapidly deployed in production handsets worldwide.
"Texas Instruments is pleased that Flextronics and SKY MobileMedia have chosen the LoCosto platform for this reference handset program," said Victor Epifani, General Manager, GSM/GPRS/Edge business at TI. "Our customers will greatly benefit from the extensive handset pre-validation and IOT efforts underway, enabling them to rapidly launch new LoCosto platform-based phones worldwide."
Because the SKY-MAP solution is supported by SKY's powerful RapidPLUS(TM) development and customization tools, the LoCosto platform based reference phone is fully customizable to any desired look and feel, including operator-branded services. Additionally, modular SKY-MAP components can be easily added or removed, enabling handset OEMs to rapidly design and test highly-differentiated and uniquely branded handsets based on Flextronics' reference phone.
"The LoCosto platform is the market leader for low-cost feature phones, and SKY-MAP has established itself as the leading applications software platform for this solution," said Naser Partovi, CEO of SKY MobileMedia. "Together with Flextronics, SKY is proud to offer OEMs a truly flexible and customizable LoCosto platform-based handset solution that can be tailored to meet any set of operator requirements and can scale to cover multiple mass-market handset segments."
About SKY MobileMedia, Inc. -- Enabling Innovation in Multimedia Communications.(TM)
SKY MobileMedia is the leading provider of complete pre-integrated turnkey software solutions for wireless handsets. SKY's market-tested application software platform, SKY-MAP(TM), has been commercially deployed in over 20 million phones worldwide. SKY-MAP brings together all of the applications software elements required for mass-market handsets, including a complete reference MMI and applications suite, SKY-MMI, standards-compliant middleware engines, and the PC-based RapidPLUS(TM) set of MMI and applications software development and customization tools. Headquartered in San Diego, California, SKY has additional development centers in Europe, Israel, and India, as well as customer support centers in Taiwan and China. For more information visit http://www.skymobilemedia.com/
Source: SKY MobileMedia, Inc.
CONTACT: Elizabeth Rose, Director of Marketing, Strategic Business and Alliances of SKY MobileMedia, Inc., +1-858-259-0415, ext. 2236, fax,
+1-858-259-0417, erose@skymobilemedia.com
Web site: http://www.skymobilemedia.com/
