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Vindigo Studios is one of the most prolific mobile application publishers in the U.S., with more than 20 consumer applications for mobile phones in market or in development, including the flagship Vindigo® city guide, MapQuest® Mobile, NYTimes.com Mobile News, MovieGoer™, and most recently, the first fantasy sports application for wireless phones, Sporting News Fantasy Source™. Tell us a bit about your applications and the technologies you are using? Vindigo Studios has developed technology to rapidly and seamlessly deploy products on every major mobile platform, including BREW, Java, WAP, Palm OS, and Pocket PC. Critical to our success has been our reputation for creating outstanding user experiences across multiple handset and network technologies. It has helped us develop deep relationships with every major wireless carrier, including ALLTEL, AT&T Wireless, Sprint PCS, U.S. Cellular, and Verizon Wireless. How did you get started? Vindigo Studios was founded in 1999 and has been a leader in creating content for the mobile lifestyle since the debut, five years ago, of its award-winning Vindigo city guide product for Palm devices. As more advanced color handsets and platforms with billing models evolved, we quickly put resources on these platforms. We understand many of the technical issues that other developers are still trying to grasp. Vindigo studios develops all of its applications in-house. Given its position as a premiere U.S. publisher, Vindigo Studios occasionally publishes high quality applications developed by third parties. What advice do you have (for other developers) with regard to submitting applications to the carriers? Developers should get a copy of the carrier's test plan and run through it before submitting the application. Most carriers offer web portals that cater to developers and the test plans are usually available on the carrier's web site. Many carriers will also provide a document outlining application guidelines. These include how you should handle screen updates, differing screen sizes and more. While emulators provide a convenient tool for testing applications but they don't precisely imitate the environment of a mobile phone so use real handsets. Test on as many different handsets as possible to account for the varying screen sizes and OEM implementations. What helps your applications sell through the carriers, how do you market them? We have a dedicated carrier relations team that works closely with carriers to bring applications to market and participate in marketing programs. Carriers are looking for partners who can deliver compelling content, technological expertise and a track record of executing effective marketing. Most smaller developers find that the fastest way to market is by partnering with an established publisher, like Vindigo Studios, who has longstanding relationships with carriers. What Openwave products and services have you used and how have they helped you succeed? We use Openwave SDK 6.2 and the Openwave browser on Verizon phones. The Openwave Mobile Browser provides a robust platform for developing mobile content applications. By supporting the latest in XHTML MP and CSS standards, Openwave has given Vindigo a tool for delivering rich content to mobile users. What's next for Vindigo? As mobile phones continue to evolve and have faster processors, more memory and better screens, the market for information and entertainment services will expand tremendously - even to the exclusion of other media channels. Although the phone will continue to be primarily a communications device, we'll see developers take advantage of this growth and launch more sophisticated communication applications. In particular, applications will become more intuitive and personalized as GPS and EVDO launch across carriers. We plan to develop more WAP applications utilizing the Openwave browser, as well as expanding our Brew and J2ME applications. If you have questions about Vindigo Studios, contact Bob Fitterman, Vindigo's Chief Technology Officer. |