The company announced the general availability of Funambol v8.5, which adds syncing of pictures and rich media between mobile devices and the open cloud. Once synced, pictures and mobile data can be viewed online, synced with connected devices and shared with social networks such as Facebook and Twitter.
Funambol’s software is currently used by mobile operators, service providers and internet companies to 'cloud sync' mobile data, including address books, calendars and email. v8.5 has been enhanced considerably to sync rich media and adds new clients for Android, Symbian, Windows Mobile, BlackBerry and Mac OS, and automatic client software update. In contrast to other cloud sync solutions, Funambol’s open source platform can sync any device, with any platform, on any network. For mobile operators, Funambol provides the means to re-establish customer relationships now being lost to device manufacturers and online platforms.
“Getting pictures off mobile phones has been tedious but that changes completely with Funambol v8.5”, said Fabrizio Capobianco, Funambol CEO. “You don’t even have to try, it can happen automatically and once your pictures are in the cloud, you are free to share them with friends and social networks, as well as access them via other devices. They are also backed up so that if the phone is lost, your pictures aren’t. It’s a perfect proposition for consumers and gives mobile operators and service providers an incredibly valuable photo capability which helps them monetize users and makes their services stickier."
Funambol v8.5 addresses key issues in the mobile industry. Mobile users increasingly expect to access rich media everywhere, on handsets, PCs and social sites. With so much valuable information on handsets, it’s important to provide simple sync. The mobile cloud provides the answer to these issues and a means to share data with any internet-ready device. Additionally, the rapidly changing mobile industry is ideally suited to the innovation and pace of development in Funambol’s open source model.
For providers of mobile services such as telecom operators, device manufacturers and internet companies, Funambol provides a whitelabel solution that syncs the broadest array of mobile data, rich media and devices.