Red Bend Blog

Independence Day Is Coming to the Mobile Industry

2009-06-30T21:42:00.006-04:00

By Lori Sylvia
EVP, Marketing
Red Bend Software

Thanks to mobile consumers, Independence Day is coming to the mobile industry. Remember Will Smith’s blockbuster movie from the summer of 1996? In the mobile industry, our own version of this movie is playing out before our eyes. I’m referring to the independence of software from hardware.

Consumer demand for new applications and services is “opening up” the mobile phone and creating a separation between the software that drives the user experience and the hardware it runs on. Software has become more important than it used to be, driven by consumer interest in downloading applications. But we know that software is much more than just apps. It’s also responsible for the core functions of the phone like browsing and messaging, and for the key enablers that power mobile services like navigation and music.

Consumers are forcing us in the mobile industry to think differently and act differently if we are to meet their needs for a personalized user experience. And software is at the core. For the mobile phone to truly be personalized, the software must become independent of the hardware, so that it can continuously evolve to meet consumers’ changing needs.

In the current model, there are multiple software creators that make up a phone, and the OEM serves as the systems integrator. All too often though, the OEM as systems integrator has the unintended consequence of serving as a bottleneck for new innovation and enhancements that come from the software creators and service providers.

Once the phone has shipped, the OEM uses firmware over-the-air (FOTA) updating to deliver a new version of software. To do this, the OEM must aggregate software updates from all of the software creators that contributed to the phone. Most OEMs will use FOTA to update the phone’s software from 1-3 times during the phone’s lifetime. This usually happens within the first year of launching the phone. After that, the OEM reassigns the engineering team to develop a new device.

Don’t get me wrong--I’m the first to tout the benefits of FOTA. Red Bend is the leader in FOTA with more than half a billion FOTA-enabled devices shipped. FOTA is extremely good at what it was designed to do, and that is to provide a more efficient and cost-effective way of performing software maintenance.

It’s not that FOTA has become less valuable to the mobile industry. It’s that software has become more valuable than it used to be. Therefore, the need to manage the software assets both discretely and dynamically throughout the phone’s lifetime has become critical to meeting consumer demand. The paradigm must change.

Mobile Software Management (MSM) changes the paradigm. With MSM, each player in the mobile industry--OEM, operator and ISV--can independently control its own software assets on the mobile device, and can break the bottleneck of the current model.

The way to achieve this is for the mobile phone to have multiple software owners, not one. The OEM can own the phone’s core functionality, the operator can own the key service enablers and the ISVs can own the applications. So, while the OEM serves as the systems integrator, it can then leverage the other players to be responsible for their software assets after the phone ships. This will result in a phone that is constantly evolving and whose software features, services and applications can be personalized to the consumer’s preferences.

The OEM can even delegate some or all of its responsibility for the phone’s core functionality to the individual software creators. For example, the OEM can enable the web browser provider to update and manage its browser without affecting the other software on the phone.

The technology to enable this level of software independence exists today with Red Bend’s vRapid Mobile™ solution for managing software components over the air (SCOTA). Several mobile industry leaders including DOCOMO are already moving to adopt the technology. With a SCOTA-enabled phone, consumers can subscribe to new data services or download the latest applications regardless of the phone’s pre-existing capabilities. The result is that more revenue is generated per subscriber throughout the phone’s lifetime. And at the end of the phone’s lifetime, the consumer has been delighted and grown loyal to the experience she received.

There is a legitimate question to be asked: Why would the OEM share or delegate its responsibility for managing the phone? The answer: to stay competitive. OEMs can leverage their supply chain (ISVs) and retail channel (MNOs) to share in the responsibility to keep the consumer satisfied, and ultimately keep their phone actively used and generating new revenues. The current status quo is a losing proposition, where OEMs generate nearly all their revenue once every two years when a new phone is purchased. If the OEM wants to stay relevant as the systems integrator, it should take a dynamic approach to this role, where software creators can update their software during the phone’s lifecycle. If not, OEMs will struggle to keep up with consumer-demanded Internet services and new applications, and will face eroding brand loyalty when the consumer grows dissatisfied and buys a new phone from a competitor.

Let’s be truthful: The replacement cycle has not shortened, and in some markets it has even lengthened due to the economy or regulatory changes that have caused consumers to spread their investments over longer periods. Let’s be truthful on another point: Phone hardware doesn’t last that long. And the OEMs will always encourage new purchases with their latest designs. Today it’s the touch screen. Next year it will be something else.

Independence Day is coming to the mobile industry. Consumers are driving this change with their increasing demand for software. The technologies are ready to enable a truly personalized mobile phone whose software is continuously enhanced and dynamically personalized. Those players in the mobile industry who embrace this new model will win with loyal consumers and new revenue streams.

Moving Forward in Advanced FOTA Features With Revertible Updates

2009-06-25T12:11:00.004-04:00

By Ilana Bogomolny
Senior Product Manager
Red Bend Software

Red Bend continues to pioneer new advances in managing mobile software over-the-air (OTA). In my last blog, I discussed background updates. This feature lets manufacturers and operators perform firmware updates while the consumer’s phone is online and fully operational, so that consumers have a working phone--from browsing the Web to making phone calls--a feature that is especially valuable during an emergency.

In this blog, I want to discuss another Red Bend feature called revertible updates. This is a feature that enables the use of the same update file for both updating the device to the new version and for reverting to the previous version--without the need to download a “downgrade” file from the server, saving bandwidth and time.

Revertible updates enable devices to roll back updates to the previous version of firmware in case the consumer cancels the update while it is in progress or in the event that a defect is detected in the new firmware version. Revertible updates support both uncompressed and compressed images.

Part of Red Bend’s vRapid Mobile™ FOTA software solution, the revertible update feature is a must-have capability in several use cases:

User-initiated version rollback: The consumer will be able to roll back to the previous version even after completing the update without having to retrieve a reverse delta from the device management (DM) server. This is often done because of user preference. Sometimes the consumer prefers the same features and functions that were on the original handset and does not want to learn the enhancements. Or there may be some incompatibility with the downloaded applications that the customer is not willing to put up with.
Update cancel: The consumer may choose to cancel the update during a FOTA maintenance update and revert back to the source version. In this instance, perhaps the consumer remembers he needs to make an important phone call, and wants to postpone the FOTA update operation to a later, more convenient time. (By the way, this is another reason to adopt background updates!)
Operator-triggered rollback: The operator will be able to revert all device updates back to the source version without sending a reverse delta. There are many reasons why operators may need to implement a revertible update. Sometimes this is done due to a defect in the target firmware. Sometimes it is because the new version of the firmware may not be compatible with the current data on the handset. For instance, operators will send a FOTA update but may discover that certain field entries of an email application are incompatible with the new version. Sometimes there are security breaches in the handsets’ operating systems and a rollback is necessary. Because operators are managing multiple handset architectures, they are increasingly seeking more control of the specifications for FOTA updates to ensure a more enriching and satisfying mobile user experience.

Besides handset manufacturers, revertible updates are also valuable for machine-to-machine (M2M) manufacturers and service providers. FOTA is being used to keep the M2M module software up-to-date with changing standards and customer requirements, and to remotely perform software updates in a fast and reliable manner. With M2M modules growing in complexity, FOTA enables manufacturers to perform software improvements over the air, without needing to send a field technician on site. It is also important to mitigate risk if a defect is detected in the new firmware version. With revertible updating, the M2M manufacturer can perform a server-initiated rollback to the previous firmware version on all or select modules. In the case of the defect affecting the cellular stack, the module can initiate a self-update triggered by a watchdog to revert back to the previous version. This revertible update can occur without any contact with the server.

Revertible updates and background updates are two features available from Red Bend since version 5 of vCurrent® Mobile, which is now called vRapid Mobile FOTA. Red Bend is committed to continuing to deliver new advancements in mobile software management (MSM) to deliver an enriching user experience that also enables our customers to reduce support costs and increase service revenues.

What's Next in Mobile Software Management

2009-04-20T17:07:00.003-04:00

By Lori Sylvia, EVP, Marketing

This week we took a bold step. We combined our vCurrent® Mobile and vRapid Mobile™ products together into a single solution for mobile software management (MSM).

At Red Bend, we are committed to providing you with innovative solutions for managing mobile software over the air, and we continuously invest in developing our products to ensure we meet your current and future needs.

From our industry-wide experience, we see a growing need to add and enhance revenue-generating applications and services to the installed customer base. Responding to this need requires a cross-platform, standards-based and flexible solution to manage firmware, applications and software components over the air.

Earlier in the week we announced Version 6 of vRapid Mobile -- the industry's first MSM client capable of managing any type of software on any mobile platform or device. It supports the full set of FOTA functionality previously available with vCurrent Mobile, along with the advanced capabilities of managing software components over the air (SCOTA).

Combining FOTA and SCOTA together into one MSM client makes it easier for customers to move from updating firmware as one complete image to supporting advanced use cases where embedded software is managed by individual components. In addition, we've added new features to optimize the management of built-in and downloadable applications.

With FOTA, manufacturers can reduce support costs and increase consumer satisfaction by remotely updating firmware with software improvements and new functionality. With SCOTA, operators can increase data revenues by deploying branded applications and service enablers in embedded software without requiring a complete maintenance release. Using application management, software developers can speed time to market of new applications and versions, faster than handset replacement cycles.

With vRapid Mobile, Red Bend is enabling the industry to unlock the value of mobile software and seize the next wave of opportunities. We are committed to enabling you to manage software in any way that you require -- today and in the future.

3G Drives China Operators to Adopt DM and FOTA

2009-04-20T17:04:00.001-04:00

By Danny Wang, Country Manager, Greater China

For the last several years China has been a vibrant center of innovation and activity in the mobile industry. China remains the largest mobile phone market in the world with 657 million subscribers. Greater China is also the manufacturing center for many of the mobile devices shipped worldwide.

Earlier this year, China assigned 3G mobile phone licenses to its three largest operators: China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom. In preparation for the rollout of 3G services, the operators have begun mandating support for device management (DM) and firmware over the air (FOTA) on all mobile handsets and devices manufactured for their networks. By standardizing on DM and FOTA, the operators in China will be able to more effectively manage and support the data services and Internet applications enabled by 3G.

The feature-packed phones that flourish in 3G-enabled networks contain greater amounts of software and sophisticated functionality. With DM and FOTA-capable devices, the operators will be ready to commercialize their update services and provide mobile consumers with the latest software improvements and features to stay competitive.

With DM and FOTA rolling out in China, Red Bend has increased its local support in China. Leading mobile companies throughout the region have recognized Red Bend's mobile software management (MSM) solutions for being easy to integrate on any mobile platform and for providing built-in compliance for Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) standards. These features enable our customers to accelerate time to market for new mobile devices. In addition, DM and FOTA solutions from Red Bend empowers operators and OEMs alike to deliver a more enriching experience to mobile users, while minimizing support costs.

The push for DM and FOTA in China has enabled Red Bend to sign deals with a number of high-profile companies. Most recently, Borqs International Holding Corp. chose Red Bend’s FOTA updating software and device management software for its Android software platform, called Open Mobile System (OMS). Haier (Qing Dao) Telecom Co., Ltd. also licensed both FOTA and DM for its HG-V70 mobile phone. By adopting Red Bend’s software, these new customers join other leading OEMs in China, including Lenovo Mobile, ZTE and Benny Wave, maker of the K-Touch brand of mobile phones.

Red Bend’s expansion in China has also reached the machine-to-machine (M2M) industry. FOTA enables manufacturers to protect their investments by deploying maintenance releases and new software features over the air rather than sending a technician on-site. Recently, SIMCom Wireless Solutions (Shanghai) licensed Red Bend’s FOTA for its M2M product portfolio to increase its competitive advantage by enabling over-the-air software updating.

In the last year, the number of Red Bend-Enabled devices in China has grown to more than 20, and is expected to continue to rise, especially as Android-based phones with Red Bend inside hit the market this year. Stay tuned to Red Bend to follow how the mobile software management market develops in China.

Nifty Way to Get an Upgrade

2009-03-23T18:41:00.006-04:00

By Yair Noam, System Architect
Red Bend Software

("Nifty Way to Get an Upgrade" is inspired by the original lyrics and music from Paul Simon's "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover")

"The software inside your phone is broke," she said to me
The answer is FOTA, you’ll be happy, I Guarantee
Please, let me help you in your struggle to fix it
That must be, the nifty way to get an upgrade

She said "the upgrade takes a very short interlude"
Software is sent over the air, believe me it’s all true
Don’t worry, it won’t brick your phone, I promise you
Cause FOTA is, the nifty way to get an upgrade
Nifty way to get an upgrade

Don’t take the phone back, Jack
Don’t get a new plan, Stan
Don't need a decoy, Roy
Just set yourself free
Don’t throw it under the bus, Gus
You don't need to wait too much
Don’t use your PC, Lee
FOTA will set you free

Ooo don’t take the phone back, Jack
Don’t get a new plan, Stan
Don't need a decoy, Roy
Just listen to me
Don’t throw it under the bus, Gus
You don't need to wait too much
Don’t use your PC, Lee
FOTA will set you free

She said it grieves me so to see you in such pain
I’ve got something new for you that’ll make you dial again
I said I appreciate that and would you please explain
About that nifty way

She said FOTA will resolve your software plight
No need to cable the phone and pray to the light
And after a few minutes, I realized she was right
That must be, the nifty way to get an upgrade
Nifty way to get an upgrade

Don’t take the phone back, Jack
Don’t get a new plan, Stan
Don't need a decoy, Roy
Just set yourself free
Don’t throw it under the bus, Gus
You don't need to wait too much
Don’t use your PC, Lee
FOTA will set you free

Ooo don’t take the phone back, Jack
Don’t get a new plan, Stan
Don't need a decoy, Roy
Just listen to me
Don’t throw it under the bus, Gus
You don't need to wait too much
Don’t use your PC, Lee
FOTA will set you free

Reflecting on Mobile World Congress 2009

2009-03-13T16:27:00.004-04:00

Below are some highlights from Red Bend Software members who participated in the four-day Mobile World Congress 2009 event in Barcelona.

Lori Sylvia, EVP of Marketing, and Morten Grauballe, EVP of MSM Platforms
App stores created a lot of noise at Mobile World Congress. Every OEM and platform provider is getting into the app store game. But the pundits are debating the wrong points. It’s not whether app stores should be closed systems from the OEMs or run by operators for the mass market. It’s not which runtime environment should win, in order help developers reduce costs and gain scale. We’ve learned by now that the mobile industry is not one size fits all, not one business model fits all. I think this highly competitive market over the next three years at least will continue to see all of the above: platform-specific app stores, OEM closed systems, operator branded storefronts and myriad development environments.

The real issue is how to let ISVs build and deploy applications that can generate new revenue streams for OEMs as well as operators from the nearly 3 billion mobile phones in use. To truly unlock this potential, ISVs need to break the dependency that applications have to be developed for specific devices. By enabling mobile phone software to be customized on demand over the air throughout the handset lifecycle, developers can innovate and consumers can choose handsets, services and applications.

Gang Shen, Director of Sales, China
Some operators announced plans to take on mobile widgets to help improve app stores. China Mobile, for example, showed a demo of a widget at Mobile World Congress. I expect this kind of service engine will become more popular and welcomed by both operators and customers.

Another interesting highlight at Mobile World Congress is that more small brands than I expected showed some amazing phones, which use the Chinese ODM/DH solution.

John Pratt, Director of Sales, Europe
Control seems to be the big issue on everyone’s mind at Mobile World Congress. As handset manufactures and operators begin to launch app stores to generate incremental revenue from software sales, everyone wants control over this service and to either directly receive revenue or be compensated for their role in the value chain. The race for even cooler handsets packed with more features and capabilities continued, but the real story is who will win the race to control app stores. It appears that handset manufactures and software vendors have an early lead, with the likes of Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Microsoft and Google all promoting their stores, but the sleepy giant who owns the end customer (i.e., operators) might have the last say.

Companies are also in a constant battle for control over what platform developers choose to develop their apps on as all the major app store companies have SDKs and are aggressively trying to attract application developers. Developers are no longer seen as someone in the backroom, but rather someone who can create that one app that generates significant interest and eyeballs that will ultimately help generate revenue and promote brand awareness.

Mobile World Congress demonstrated that the industry is once again going through quite a transition, and it will be interesting to see who will win the race for control over attracting developers and delivering app stores to maintain and grow brand loyalty.

Reflections on 2008; Anticipation of “the Day After”

2009-01-05T11:14:00.005-05:00

Yoram Salinger
CEO
Red Bend Software

Reflecting on 2008, unquestionably the state of the world economy had a significant impact on the mobile ecosystem. As such, mobile technology companies, especially handset manufacturers, are changing the way they conduct business. They will be cautious in the first half of 2009, reducing spending, controlling operations, and preparing to react as the economic crisis continues. They will cut the expectations of phone shipments to the market, as they did in 2008.

Consumers are also changing their behavior. As a result, the replacement cycle of the phones will change; consumers will not be purchasing new mobile phone models or upgrading as often as they have. In 2008, we saw this occur in Japan when the operators abandoned their subsidies. As a result, there was about a 40 percent decline in new mobile phone purchases. Japanese operators are now faced with severe competition to retain customers and acquire new ones. In 2009, they will need to offer new services to boost their revenues and look overseas to grow their customer base.

Despite the slowing pace of replacements, mobile phones are perceived to be essential parts of our lives, no longer a matter of convenience. For some consumers, their mobile phone is their only communication device. For others, it is has become a platform for commerce and socialization.

While some OEMs were especially hit hard by the economy, others flourished. Take Apple and its iPhone. Apple has stayed on top despite the financial crisis. They have done this because they cultivated a great experience. And core to this great user experience is the additional applications that Apple offered. During the summer of 2008, Apple announced it had generated $30 million in one month by selling 100 million downloads from its Apple App Store for its iPhone and iPod Touch devices. The proliferation of other mobile application storefronts like Google’s Android Market, Microsoft’s Skymarket, Nokia’s Mosh and the Ovi initiative is allowing consumers to freely customize their phones with new applications and services. The expected result for these companies is noteworthy. For example, the App Store alone is expected to be a $1.2 billion business by the end of 2009, states investment firm Piper Jaffray. Even though Apple evolved as a significant player with an end-to-end proprietary system, it has several obstacles to confront. How will the iPhone reach Nokia’s level of mass market shipments? How will Apple evolve long term in the industry?

Apple was not the only disruptive force in the mobile industry in 2008. Open source software changed the economics of the mobile platform in 2008. There was the Google Android launch and the birth of the Symbian Foundation. Because OEMs will build more phones on Android and Symbian, these platforms will become more community driven. But the big question is: Will the manufacturers release the code back to the industry, further driving collaboration and innovation while decreasing costs, or will they leverage it to their advantage?

For 2009, both consumers and mobile companies will be careful with their money. But when consumers are ready to make that purchase, they’ll find more compelling options than ever before, specifically increasingly affordable smartphones and new kinds of innovative wireless devices to surf the Internet or read an electronic book. According to ARCchart, by 2013 non-handset devices—everything from data cards to game consoles to ebooks and M2M applications—will account for $93 billion in service revenue generated by operators. This is an exciting area of growth for our industry.

Mobile software management will provide device manufacturers, mobile operators and ISVs greater flexibility and control over managing a device’s software throughout its lifecycle. They will be able to create new revenue opportunities and improve customer satisfaction through personalization. Features can be offered for a one-time fee or through a subscription service.

Further on the bright side, we will see some recovery in 2009 because at the end of the day, the mobile phone is a lifestyle product. By 2010, there will be 4 billion mobile phone subscribers. Their mobile phones have become sophisticated computing devices—equipped with powerful software, enabling rich user interfaces and advanced features and applications, from streaming video to location-based services to music players. And these rich capabilities only serve to further integrate the mobile phone into our daily lives. Have you ever left the house without your phone, and not gone back to retrieve it?

While there is certainly a level of fear, uncertainty and doubt, companies that prepare for “the day after” during this economic downturn will be the visionaries. The first to react will be the thought leaders because they will be able to identify opportunities through partnerships, mergers or acquisitions. These are the companies that will be proactive with feeding the market with new platforms, devices, features and services. And Red Bend Software will be one of those companies.

SCOMO Goes Beyond FOTA and Focuses on Managing Individual Software Components

2008-12-02T11:23:00.006-05:00

By Elad Ganot
Director of Standards and Alliances
Red Bend Software

Last month I enthusiastically purchased an advanced home entertainment system. I paid a lot of money to enjoy its high sound and picture quality, which were enabled by the cutting-edge technology that’s available in today’s market. It took me about seven years to upgrade my system even though I am a gadget fan and have a technical background. My new system is composed of an HDTV, an advanced receiver (which includes an image enhancer), a media streamer and a DVD player. You might wonder why isn’t Blu-ray part of my system—especially if I want to enjoy high definition movies. The DVD won’t help me so much as it cannot store the capacity required for HD quality. Well, as you may know, there is still doubt on whether Blu-ray will indeed become the next mainstream format for movies, so I’ve decided to wait and see. I can always upgrade separately my existing DVD to a Blu-ray (or whatever other format wins the market). Upgrading my DVD will not force me to upgrade the whole system because it is a stand-alone part with well-defined interfaces to the rest of the system. This makes it a “component.” When the time comes, I will receive an email telling me about this cool new device and for the right price I would click the “buy it now” button, and a delivery package will be on its way to my home.

Going from the hardware world to the software world, things look even cooler. Here not only do components are upgradable, but also they even do so almost instantly and quite frequently. I change software components on my computer at least 100 times a year (not just once every few years). I install software, update existing software and uninstall software that I don’t use. Sometimes I just disable software for a while and re-enable it later. Yeah, I like tweaking the software on my computer, and recently I started playing with my mobile phone in the same way. My mobile phone has so many software components available for it that I even abandoned my stand-alone PDA, which had served me loyally for several years.

Most users are not even aware of the fact that their mobile phone could actually be used as a personal computing platform. They probably know they can customize it in terms of a fashionable look (with wallpapers, sounds and colorful covers), but will they know how to discover a useful software component? Then be able to download it? Install it? Disable it if needed and re-enable it? Remove it?

It was back in 2005 when the mobile industry saw an opportunity to improve the user experience with regard to software management and offered a service of managing the “life cycle” of software components on remote devices. To be able to realize this concept, you have to achieve a mass market, and the industry must agree on some common methods of communication—to allow for every device on every network to connect to the service, regardless of the manufacturer of the equipment (be it a managed client device or a managed server). The good news is that we NOW have a consensus with the Candidate Release of SCOMO 1.0 that was ratified by the OMA on Nov. 17.

Now let us componentize the last sentence in a reversed order:

Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) is the open organization that develops service enablers for the benefit of the mobile (and recently fixed-line) industry. If you are using Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS), then you are already using an enabler developed by the OMA.
Software Component Management Object version 1.0 (SCOMO 1.0) is the name of the service enabler that allows a service provider to remotely manage software components on connected devices.
Candidate Release is a major milestone in the development of OMA enablers. It denotes that the enabler is ready for implementation and is about to go through a phase of interoperability testing. If a concrete interoperability issue is identified during the testing phase, then a standard solution can be found and incorporated into the official specifications. Once no more issues are found and interoperability testing is sufficiently successful, the enabler is promoted to Approved status.

But a Candidate state also means a lot from a business perspective. Interoperability testing period typically happens in parallel to commercial deployments of the enabler. This means that Candidate Release of an enabler is a signal for businesses to start implementing commercial deployments, since the enabler is stable.

In mid-2006, the OMA published the Candidate Release of Firmware Update Management Object (FUMO), which allowed mobile operators to offer a service of updating the firmware of a connected device over the air, without bothering the consumer to physically bring the device to a store. This enabler—which was later Approved in early 2007—has revolutionized the way firmware is managed and had significant results in productivity of consumers as well as mobile operators and handheld manufacturers. It saved costs and, at times, was a means for rolling out new service features and services. To date, hundreds of millions of devices worldwide have been using FOTA, and it serves as evidence for the success of the FUMO enabler.

Much of the lesson and design details of SCOMO are based on FUMO, but with a major difference in mind. This time it’s all about software components over the air (SCOTA) rather than a single monolithic firmware image being managed. It is a more complicated task to manage separate components than it is to manage a single firmware, which is why FUMO is not appropriate for performing SCOTA. But SCOMO is still based on design principles learned from the successful FUMO standard. In that sense, SCOMO can be considered as an evolution of FUMO. But make no mistakes, these two are complementary to each other and they will live side-by-side. They are tools designed for similar but still different purposes. Coming back to my neat home entertainment system analogy: I would use FUMO to update the whole system in one piece, but I would use SCOMO to update just my DVD component (hopefully sooner than later).

For more information about SCOMO, please read the following:

"SCOMO: Enabling the Remote Lifecycle Management of Software Components" at http://www.redbend.com/resources/scomo.asp and
Wireless Week’s “Inventory Changes Everything” at http://www.redbend.com/news/view_article.asp?ID=605&TypeID=2.

Background Updating Comes to the Foreground

2008-09-25T16:23:00.002-04:00

By Ilana Bogomolny
Senior Product Manager
Red Bend Software

Whether we’re using a PC or a Mac, we all receive those popup windows alerting us that a software update is available. We don’t think twice about those popups because they’re common practice today in the world of computers. We know we must execute those updates in order to keep our machines healthy. The updating process is exceptionally simple. We activate the update and continue using our email or other applications, letting the update perform in the background. But we know that the more applications we are running, the slower the software updates will take to install. Periodically, we may check the progress bar and see how much time there is left to the update. Once the update is completed, we may be asked to reboot our system. All very simple!

There is a similar process for updating the firmware on your mobile phone—but with a BIG difference. The update does not happen in the background—in fact, the phone is unusable until the update completes. For those of us specializing in FOTA, we understand that the time to complete the update process is dependent on several factors, including how many changes are taking place to the firmware. In some cases, it may take 15 minutes or more. With mobile phones serving as the lifeline for so many users around the world, any amount of downtime can be unacceptable, especially during emergencies.

Red Bend has changed the FOTA paradigm with a new innovation called Background Updating. With Background Updating, the phone is only down for as long as it takes to reboot. The actual update happens in the background while the phone is fully operational. Since the updating process requires memory and processor resources, and these are not as abundant on the phones as they probably are on your PC, running resource-hungry applications, such as watching video or playing some games, would not be advisable during an update, as they might work somewhat sluggishly. But there is nothing to stop you from making and receiving calls, browsing the Web and generally using the phone as you normally would.

There are several ways how the mobile user can interact with the Background Updating process.

To initiate a FOTA update, the user either searches through the phone’s menu to check for updates or is notified by the service provider that an update is available. The update then starts immediately. Because the flash memory is being updated in the background, the user is able to continue using the phone—texting, Web browsing, making and receiving phone calls, etc.—because the old firmware version is still online. Just like the computer scenario in which the updating process can be slowed down due the amount of active applications, we want to limit our application use during the FOTA update in order to expedite the updating time. Also, some service providers may offer a progress bar or animated image to indicate how long the update will take.
After the update is complete, the user then receives a message on the screen to have the option to manually reboot the device at that moment or later at a more convenient time.
Once rebooted, the user has the latest version of firmware on the mobile phone, and the device is operating at peak performance.

With Background Updating, update time becomes irrelevant because 1) the user is still able to fully use the device and 2) the user decides when to reboot. Rebooting does not have to be executed immediately after the FOTA update. For instance, it could occur when the user shuts off the phone for its daily recharging.

Because of the simplicity and ease of Background Updating—and how it mirrors software updates on computers—it is quickly coming into the foreground of operator requirements for FOTA. And with good reason. Many have service level agreements covering availability of the phone and the network. Others have legal considerations for access to emergency services, such as E911 in the United States. In addition, operators are responding to the customer needs of establishing a familiar software updating process, regardless of the type of device: PC, Mac, feature phone or smartphone.

To see Background Updating in action, watch this video.

Linux, Calligraphy, and a serious case of Déjà Vu

2008-06-11T12:00:00.005-04:00

By Morten Grauballe
EVP, Platforms and Ecosystem
Red Bend Software

When I lived in Japan in the late 1980s, I had a very enjoyable flirtation with calligraphy. Although I never got beyond the early lessons of drawing bamboo, I did learn the basic Zen principle of “form is void and void is form.” It basically brings forward the simple notion that objects are defined by the space between them and that space is defined by the objects around them. This notion is brought to its forefront in the “Enso,” or Zen circle. The Enso itself is a universal symbol of wholeness and completion, and the cyclical nature of existence.

I mention this here, because I recently had a strong sense of déjà vu taking me back to the 1990s. It was one of those moments which seemed to tie a current event to early steps in my career. At the time, I was working at Symbian and a fierce debate was raging within Symbian for and against two box solutions (i.e. phone and PDA) versus one box solution (i.e. an integrated Smartphone). While 10 years later it seems obvious that the Smartphone would win, it was not necessarily so back then. Remember these were the days of the Palm Pilot.

My flashback started in a cab going to a meeting near Tel Aviv last week. Taking advantage of the low dollar exchange rate, my colleague from the US had brought me Nokia’s Linux-based N810. She handed it to me 5 minutes before getting into the cab. Unable to control my curiosity, I had to power up the device while we were en route. It had a truly stunning display, boot time seemed reasonable, and the UI behaved more or less as I would expect. It soon became clear from the mapping application and the car mount accessory that the device had been designed with navigation in mind. I also managed to pair it over Bluetooth to my trusty E65. I was starting to fall in love. Together with a sleek HSPDA feature phone from Sony Ericsson, this might be it….maybe the two-box solution would work after all.

To test the substance, and not just the looks, I launched the mapping application which, true to its origin of purchase, asked me to choose between a map of Canada and a map of the US. With my Canadian colleague in the back, I managed to pinpoint his house down to the street – not bad, not bad at all!

Once we arrived at our meeting I managed to connect it to the local hotspot. To test whether the two-box solution would work in my native Denmark, I started to download the 176MB map of Scandinavia. As we got through the first couple of items on the agenda, the device finished downloading and was sitting on the table waiting for me to test it. It was a struggle to keep my hands off the device.

Then it started to happen….a strong reversal of fortune. We had a break in the meeting and I immediately tapped on the map icon. Instead of giving me a choice of maps, the mapping application kept crashing. The screen would go white as if the mapping application was launching, but then it would disappear and the desktop would reappear. I tried a reboot. It did not help. I pulled out the battery. It did not help. It soon became apparent that the map of Scandinavia somehow made the mapping application fall over. Not good, not good at all.

At this stage, I better admit the real reason why I had asked my colleague to purchase the N810 in the first place. It was not really to satisfy my own fascination with mobile gadgets – although I had lost track of that in the first exciting hours of my encounter with the N810. The real reason was more business in nature. During a meeting in Redwood City, Calif., Ram Fish, TrollTech’s General Manager for Digital Home Products, had challenged me and my colleague, Guy Agin, to compare our implementation of vRapid Mobile, our software management application, with the implementation of the Debian Package Manager on the N810. I decided to order the device right away. This was the real reason I was now franticly tapping away on the mapping application icon.

While a crashing map application was not good from a usability point of view, it was the perfect opportunity for me to test the software management capabilities of the N810. As mentioned, the application management application is based on the Debian Package Manager which in turn is based on APT, all open source:

“The Advanced packaging tool, or APT, is a user interface that works with core libraries to handle the sometimes difficult process of installing software on Linux. APT simplifies the process of managing software on Unix-like computer systems by automating the retrieval, configuration and installation of software packages.” (www.wikipedia.com)

I powered up the application manager. As I clicked on “Check for updates”, I was relieved to see an update to the mapping application. Eureka…someone had realized the problem and issued a fix. I clicked on the icon and the device displayed the message “retrieving update” and then it happened again. The device let me down. Instead of “installing update,” I got the following message:

“Unable to Install Map Update - incorrect source. Please contact the publisher of this application”

The Debian Package Manager was clearly present, but someone somewhere was not providing the right updates for my device.

Luckily, I was already aware of the possibility to update the firmware with the provided USB cable. If I could not use the application manager to fix my problem, I would perform a complete reflash. That should do the trick!

Off I went to my usual Nokia software update site, http://europe.nokia.com/softwareupdate. I typed in the software version and the code identifying my device. I tried three times and every time I got the same answer: “Code not recognized.” Hmm, very strange.

When in doubt, launch Goggle! So I did and typed in “N810 software update.” I did get a Nokia site, but https://www.nokiausa.com/A4686323. In hindsight, it is obvious I should have gone to the US site instead of the European site, but when you are dealing with software management usability is everything. Consumers just want it to work. One button press on the device to get the right software - that would be the perfect experience.

I managed to find the link to the latest update and was also happy to see that the software updater on my PC for the E65 was working with the N810 as well. The update went well, although I am still amazed that Nokia prefers to issue the user a warning dialog around the removal of the battery instead of having a fail-safe mechanism that can track and recover the reflashing process. Being one minor mistake away from bricking your device is not a comfortable position to be in.

Getting excited to finally test the mapping application, I powered on the device once more and tapped on the mapping icon. The screen went white and up popped a dialog: “Cannot install – no memory card available.” I ripped the packaging apart to find a memory card, but there was none there. This is when it dawned on me that the new firmware had actually been designed for the N810 WiMAX edition which presumably comes with a memory card. The Maemo team had decided to make the software version, called OS2008, available for the N810 as well. No one had however been testing backwards compatibility of the mapping application.

This was the exact point where I was brought back to my early Symbian days. It was abundantly clear that I was caught in the cyclical nature of existence. Back then, we were trying to ship EPOC (original name for Symbian OS) release 5 for the Psion 5. This is over 10 years ago, but I still remember how excited I was about the touch screen, the responsiveness, and the applications on the device. I also remember the grueling process of having an entire contact database deleted due to a defect. I remember the reflashing process, when a new version came out. I remember applications not working due to compatibility issues…..another reflash!

The N810 was bringing out the exact same feeling of excitement combined with the incredible disappointment of things not working. 10 years had passed in the mobile industry and very little had changed in terms of the software experience.
Reflecting further on this, it is interesting to observe that we actually have completely new technologies to help us, like the Debian Package Manager, but the cause of the problem is clearly not technology. It is in fact in the business processes that surround the technology.

I am sure that the Scandinavian maps were working when Wayfinder was testing them in their labs in Sweden. I know that I was a happy user of Wayfinder back in the days when I had a SonyEricsson P800. Somewhere between Nokia and Wayfinder, the configuration of the software (or maybe hardware) was changed and we ended up with a defect no one had managed to identify. It took me less than half a day to find it.
I am also sure the right update for the map applications exists somewhere. This is not a technical problem. For some reason, the wrong update was uploaded to the server. I am not sure whether the Maemo team got the wrong update or whether someone uploaded it incorrectly to the server. The end-result was an unhappy user.

Finally, I am sure the Maemo team had good intentions when they decided to make OS2008 available for my device. I am also sure they tested the software on the N810. For some reason, the mapping application was not tested properly. Probably because it was not part of the firmware, but rather an add-on application residing on a separate drive.

Just like “form is void and void is form” in Zen philosophy, end-user experience of technology is defined by the business processes that surround it and the business processes are in turn defined by the technology. As my experience shows, the artists of the mobile industry are so focused on the object that they forget the spaces between the objects. We therefore end up with mobile devices that can best be described as almost completely black canvasses where you have to look very hard to identify the bamboo in the picture.

From an end-user experience perspective, it does not make sense to distinguish between software in the firmware and software in the R/W file system. For the consumer, a software application is a software application. They do not care about the drive it is residing on, or whether it was supplied by Nokia or WayFinder, or which installation and management technology is being used to get it to the device. In the eyes of the consumer, each application (or software component) should be managed in the same way, tested the same way, and updated the same way, irrespective of the underlying technology being used.

We have all the technology elements to make mobile software management a treat for the customer – now, let’s leave plenty of space for the business processes and make sure we have an experience that delights the customer.

305 Million Mobile Phones, 29 Licensees and $10 Million in Funding to Fuel What’s Next

2008-05-22T21:43:00.001-04:00

By Yoram Salinger
CEO
Red Bend Software

There are many exciting developments happening here at Red Bend.

Our vCurrent® Mobile FOTA software has shipped in more than 300 million mobile phones. This milestone has been reached thanks to your continued support. Over the past year and a half, we have seen our business grow rapidly as firmware updating and device management achieve mass market adoption. According to Ovum, more than half of all new mobile phones are coming to market with FOTA software, and this number is projected to increase to 84% by the end of next year.

With FOTA-enabled phones now widely available, we are working closely with our customers and partners to increase usage of over-the-air software updating. Our innovative Background Updating feature, we believe, sets the new standard in FOTA and significantly improves the mobile user experience by performing the firmware update in the background while the consumer continues to use the phone, without taking the device offline.

As of Q1, we now have 29 licensees of our software products. Red Bend has amassed a wealth of experience and knowledge about best practices in OTA software updating. We recently launched an effort to document best practices in creating “FOTA-friendly firmware.” I encourage you to contact us to learn more and see how we can assist you in efficiently provisioning firmware updates.

Lastly, I am pleased to inform you that Red Bend has closed a funding round of $10 million. The new funds will be used for sales and marketing to grow our position in the mobile market as well as seize new opportunities in licensing our software for other connected wireless devices. In addition, the funds will be used to accelerate investment in research and development to bring you new innovations in mobile software management. Stay tuned to see what’s next.

“Pizza or cell phones?” – Observations from CTIA Wireless 2008

2008-04-09T08:41:00.001-04:00

By Lori Sylvia
VP, Corporate Marketing
Red Bend Software

“Pizza or cell phones?” asked the taxi driver, when I stated that my destination was the Las Vegas Convention Center. To her, the fare was the same, but my answer would direct her taxi to one of two shows taking place at the Convention Center last week. Perhaps I should have said “pizza”…

“If you're a pizzeria operator looking to improve your business or if your business provides equipment or services to the pizza industry, you've come to the right place. You'll find networking, learning, great deals, and just plain fun at International Pizza Expo® - the World's Largest and Oldest Pizza Tradeshow.”

Who doesn’t like “great deals” and “fun?” Compare that with:

“The convergence of more than 1,100 exhibiting companies, dozens of industries, and over 40,000 professionals from 125 countries all working toward the common goal of revolutionizing wireless. Whether in broadband convergence, enterprise, advertising, social networking or entertainment, CTIA WIRELESS 2008 is the global marketplace for connecting wireless and YOU.”

It’s ironic that the show billed as “The Most Important Global Technology Event of the Year” wasn’t eventful at all. I know I’m not the only blogger to make this observation. The lack of “big news” from the operators, OEMs and Internet players last week was noticeable by all. Still, there were three things that I’ll remember from CTIA last week.

The busiest booth had to be Xohm. No matter which day or what time of day I walked by that booth, it was always buzzing with people. It’s no wonder that Xohm had so much interest, given all the anticipation created by the news that Xohm and WiMAX in general have had over the past year. At one point I overheard someone ask, “How do you pronounce the name?” To which the nice lady at the reception counter said, “With a Z – ‘Zome.’ ” Now, who says trade shows are not good for branding?
I attended the IDC Breakfast on Wednesday morning. IDC’s Shiv Bakhshi, who is always a lively and interesting speaker, observed that people used to say “Content is king” but now people are saying “Context is king.” He made the whole room laugh when he said the conflict in the Middle East could have been prevented if only Abraham was holding a cell phone when God spoke to him, then we might know the exact location of the Promised Land.
At Yahoo!, they were promoting version 3.0 (still in beta) of their Yahoo! Go mobile application and offering on-site downloads. I took the bait, and handed over my new AT&T Tilt. Except that I was told that my phone didn’t support 3.0, only 2.0. Seems that Yahoo! Go 3.0 isn’t available yet for Windows Mobile devices – that was coming soon. I wouldn’t have access to all the new widgets and functionality being offered in 3.0, but I decided to download 2.0 anyway to check it out.

Again and again we see this same problem faced by ISVs, no matter how big or small, that their time to market and addressable market are affected by the fragmentation in mobile platforms. Two of my colleagues—Morten Grauballe and Richard Kinder—recently co-authored an article on this topic that is definitely worth reading, especially if you’re an ISV. Morten is also scheduled to speak on this topic at Handsets World in Berlin, June 10-11, in a presentation called, “The ISV Reality of Deploying Software and Services on Mobile Phones.” At Red Bend, you can see we’re passionate about this issue, not just from the perspective of the ISV but also how this affects OEMs, operators and consumers. This is precisely the challenge that we help the mobile value chain to overcome, and if you want to learn more, you can read about our vRapid Mobile™ product.

But enough of the shameless plug… back to my observations… once Yahoo! Go 2.0 was downloaded to my phone, I immediately powered it up to check it out. What was the first thing I tried? The map tool of course. I identified my location as Las Vegas, and then I could search for businesses nearby. Like pizza shops, shown in the example on Yahoo!’s promotional graphics. But I already knew where to go for that.

Apple Changes the Rules (again)…

2008-01-18T11:18:00.000-05:00

By Richard Kinder
VP, Technology
Red Bend Software

Another day, another business model innovation from Apple. Having shaken up the mobile world with a reported strategy of taking a cut of ARPU generated by iPhone users, Apple is now monetizing its software assets in other device types.

Being the owner of an iPod Touch I was delighted to discover the availability of a new firmware release (v.1.1.3). This adds some of the interesting applications and new features previously only available on the iPhone, including the Google Maps application and Mail client. At a cost of 12GBP I was more than happy to indulge. I have to say the end results are great; but what about the software update user experience?

First off, I needed to be at my home iMac to perform the update. At least I was at home and could walk up the stairs…initial download of the new image took a while, even at home on an “up to” 8Mbit/s DSL line. The actual update went smoothly (although I didn’t have the courage to test whether the software update is failsafe in the event of loss of device power or PC connectivity!) and the billing process via iTunes store worked well.

What would I improve:

Lose the iMac’s role in the process (I can wirelessly purchase songs direct from iTunes Store on my Touch, why not software?)
Reduce the size of the update to make wireless download feasible (perhaps there’s a company out there with some technology to do this? Wink, wink)

Not only would these improvements benefit the user experience, but making updates available more frequently and more conveniently (when not at home, for example) could help to drive the attach rate up and generate Apple additional revenues from device software.

Other device vendors take note – many of you have valuable software assets that currently are underutilized.

When will the ‘traditional’ mobile phone industry catch up with Apple?

The inner secrets of the 100 million unit club

2007-12-21T09:57:00.000-05:00

By Morten Grauballe
EVP, Marketing
Red Bend Software

2007 became the year when mainstream Silicon Valley decided to attack the mobile phone market head-on. With over 1 billion mobile phones shipped every year and the market moving towards 3 billion mobile subscribers, you can understand why.

Apple started the year by announcing the iPhone. Half way through they started shipping and quite successfully too. The incumbent players took notice – believe me. Then to make 2007 a real year of change, Google announced Android a new platform meant to change the dynamics of the value chain. It is ”free” (in a royalty sense) and with a strong focus on allowing internet applications and services (to make money). Apple has also announced that it will open up the iPhone for native applications in 2008. It is a complete onslaught on the mobile phone market.

So, if you are a large software player in the PC or internet space, then 2008 seems like the perfect year to penetrate the market and get onto those 1 billion units. You can easily envision the following conversation taking place in well-establish software players from San Francisco down to San Jose:

CHoM (Clever Head of Marketing): “Over 1 Billion mobile phones every year – that is too good to be true!....How do we penetrate this market? How do we get to the biggest installed base of users?”
RAG (Resident Architect Genius): “Not sure”
CHoM: “Java seems to be a good option – there are millions of java-enabled phones in the market”
A little later…….
RAG: “I had a look….Java ME does not give good access to a broad set of APIs. Also….there is significant Java fragmentation across handsets – complete nightmare, if you ask me!”
CHoM: “I got it! We will move to native programming - Smartphones are taking off!”
RAG: “Hmm….Symbian OS, with the largest installed base, is on single digit percentage market share. “
CHoM: “But if we add Brew we will get a few more percentage points!” [in denial!]
RAG: “We are still nowhere near 1 billion units!”
CHoM: “What about adding Windows Mobile? Or the new Android thing?” [Now completely in denial!]
A few hours later……
CHoM: “So…in summary, we need to port to 8-12 different operating systems to be successful!”
RAG: “Yep…and most of these operating systems do not have publicly available SDKs!” [clearly enjoying himself]
CHoM: “What…?” [Almost crying!]
RAG: ”Finally....you should know that there is no distribution method for getting software onto phones!” [Big grin!]
CHoM: “………..!” [in tears]
A few more hours…….
CHoM: ”So what you are saying is ..we need a relationship with the handset manufacturers to get the SDKs and to get our software embedded into their phones!” [with a hardened sense of realism!”
RAG: “Spot on, boss!”

In a world like that, it might be surprising to newcomers (like CHoM and RAG above) that there are successful software players in the mobile phone industry. There are in fact quite a few. When your software is on 100 million phones globally, then you have joined the “100 million unit club.” Some of the leading members of this club are:

Adobe (formerly Macromedia) –provides the Flash Lite execution environment
Access – provides a successful mobile browser
Beatnik – provides the polyphonic ringtone engine on most mobile phones
Packet Video – provides the audio and video technology, i.e. for the Verizon V-Cast music service
Opera – provides a successful mobile browser
Red Bend Software – provides the majority of Firmware updating Over-The-Air (FOTA) software
T9 – provides the predictive text engine found on a lot of phones
The Astonishing Tribe (TAT) – provides the graphics engine that drives a lot of UIs in the wireless industry

By studying the approach of these companies, newcomers can learn a lot about how you tackle the world of mobile. What do they do right?

First of all, they all have excellent products that excite not only the mobile operators, but also bring true value and benefits to the consumers around the world. Without this, you should not even try to enter the mobile phone market.

Secondly, these companies embrace complexity, rather than trying to ignore it or wait for it to disappear. Most, if not all, members of the 100 million unit club have ported their software to the 8-12 leading operating systems in the industry. Where applicable they will have a Java version (like Opera Mini) and a native version (like Opera Mobile). They have also invested in the art of software optimization (something not always needed on a PC), which allows them to move into the mid-tier and low-tier segments of the market. They also understand the complexities of software distribution. When appropriate they will have relationship with the handset manufacturers. At other times, the will use the portals for the mobile operators or independent service providers to distribute their solution.

Thirdly, these companies understand the market dynamics of the global mobile phone market. Some markets are operator-led, while other markets are more OEM-led. If, for instance, you have managed to get your software embedded on some of DoCoMo’s MOAP-S based handsets in Japan, then your next port of call should probably be the S60 or UIQ licensees in Europe. If you manage to get on these handsets, then you have an opportunity to move to the proprietary operating systems of these licensees. Gradually you expand your market to more and more platforms across the various markets in the global mobile industry.

Finally, all of the above companies have participated actively in standards work. To get acceptance for your solution, it important for all the players in the value chain (mobile operators as well as handset manufacturers) that your software or service is based on open APIs and protocols that other people can add value to and support.

(In coining the term “the 100 million unit club”, I have ignored web programming. In our brave new world of web 2.0, that is admittedly a crime which I am sure web 2.0 fanatics will nail me for. The fragmentation and appropriateness of web programming for mobile phones is however a big topic in itself and is probably better left for a separate blog posting).

Lessons in a changing market
Basing recommendations on extrapolations from the past is always dangerous in a dynamic market. Let’s therefore also look at some of the changes taking place right now. These trends could determine who will and who will not be members of the 100 million unit club in the future.

Open operating systems are definitely gaining market traction. Linux, Windows Mobile, Symbian, and a few others are now responsible for close to 10% of the market. There is still an ongoing debate in the market as to whether they will make up 20% or 50% of the market someday. Whatever your view point, it is not going to happen overnight, and in the short term, Apple’s OS X and Google’s Android platform are two new operating systems that need to be taken into consideration. Platform de-fragmentation is clearly not a trend to bet on in the next 2-3 years. In the 5 year time horizon, it might be.

The good news about the increased competition in the platform market is that SDKs, tools, and support from the large platform providers are improving rapidly. It is therefore becoming easier for the software players to embrace the complexity as described above. Software is becoming more portable.

If we move from the world of software platforms to the world of software distribution, there is more help to be found. The Open Mobile Alliance ratified the specification of Device Management (DM) in early 2004. At the heart of the OMA DM standard, there is a well-designed protocol which enables the service provider to query any handset for its basic characteristics (like model number, firmware version, and settings). According to Ovum (Nov 2007), there is now an installed base of 235 million handsets with OMA DM support. This will grow to 50% of all handsets by the end of 2008. With both handset manufacturers and mobile operators actively using this protocol to provision settings and new software to handsets, it is becoming possible to distribute software post-launch. All of a sudden, you know which handsets are attached to the network and you can offer new features and services. For those software players who are already comfortable with the complexity of the platform market, this is an opportunity to accelerate time-to-market and up-sell new software or services once you are on the handset. The completion of SCoMO (Software Component Management Object) with in the OMA will further accelerate this trend.

2007 was a very exciting year for software providers in the mobile market. Players, who understand how to navigate the new world of mobiles have a lot to gain. Good luck and Happy New Year to all new candidate members of the 100 million unit club!

Software on the Edge: MSM Reaches New Frontiers

2007-11-26T17:32:00.000-05:00

By Yoram Salinger
CEO
Red Bend Software

Having experienced the benefits of MSM for mobile phones, operators are beginning to require software management for all edge devices in the network. Mobile broadband PC cards are some the latest devices to benefit from FOTA and OMA-DM capability. With MSM, operators can provision settings over-the-air, reduce customer support costs and keep consumers satisfied with their mobile services—whether they are talking on their mobile phones or video conferencing from their PCs.

The fact that operators are extending MSM to mobile PC cards shows the increasing importance that operators are placing on having full management control over their networks. Red Bend is in a unique position to give operators a consistent level of control in a world of heterogeneous terminals. We are the only company totally focused on remotely managing software inside mobile devices. Our experience working with 15 manufacturers across a dozen different mobile platforms (both open and proprietary) enables Red Bend to intimately appreciate the complexities of mobile software architectures.

We recently celebrated shipping our market-leading vCurrent® Mobile solution in 200 million mobile phones worldwide. Soon, mobile broadband PC cards will come to market that are Red Bend-enabled. And after that, well… stay tuned. As operators and manufacturers become more advanced in their use of MSM, Red Bend will continue to innovate and deliver new solutions that enable our customers to derive even greater value from software on the edge.

Best Practices in Creating Firmware for Over-the-Air Update Deployment

2007-11-26T16:55:00.000-05:00

By Ilana Bogomolny
Senior Product Manager
Red Bend Software

In the mobile phone market, increasing numbers of devices now support FOTA—Firmware Over-the-Air (FOTA) updating. FOTA is the most cost-effective way to maintain the device firmware and to provide new features remotely. It is already common practice for operators in Japan and the US, and is gaining momentum with OEMs and operators in Europe.

However, even with wide support for FOTA capability across feature phones and smartphones, the actual deployment of firmware updates varies by operator, OEM and even by region. Updating mobile firmware over-the-air is new territory and a subtle paradigm shift for device software developers and integrators. Raising the level of awareness about best practices in creating and deploying new firmware versions using FOTA can significantly accelerate market adoption as well as improve the consumer experience and level of trust in this new technology.

To optimize the FOTA user experience, the updates need to be as small as possible, and the update process should be as fast as possible. From the device manufacturer perspective, updates should be easy to create and test.

For the past five years, Red Bend Software has been providing its market-leading vCurrent® Mobile FOTA solution to the industry’s top device manufacturers on more than 100 device models, implementing a wide variety of device architectures, chipset platforms and operating systems. Red Bend's Field Application Engineers have accumulated a wealth of hands-on experience in supporting our customers through successful integration, adoption and deployment of FOTA.

At Red Bend, we have learned that although using vCurrent Mobile for FOTA updating does not require any changes to the manufacturer’s tool-chain, the awareness of the factors affecting firmware updates can have a significant effect on update size and speed and ultimately the consumer's experience.

So what are these factors?

FOTA updates are created by calculating the difference between old and new firmware versions. This means that OEM software developers and integrators should not consider each software release only as a standalone project, but should also be aware of the amount and nature of the changes introduced since previous versions. As many teams contribute components to a software release, it is often difficult for the configuration manager to figure out who is contributing most changes – Red Bend provides a set of tools which allows the configuration manager to understand who is contributing what kind of changes.

The updating experience for the consumer should be as easy and brief as possible. To this end, creating and sending a single file that updates the firmware version is always preferable to sending a series of updates incrementing one version at a time. In addition to improving the user's experience, single-step, single-session updates provide less opportunity for the phone users to cancel the download process, and thus will increase the rate of successfully completed update sessions.

Other factors that affect FOTA are the optimization of the FOTA Update Agent during the integration onto the device, and the optimal usage of update generation tools when FOTA updates are created and deployed.

In addition, standard engineering practices for software updating involving data formats and API compatibility should be observed.

In order to help industry-wide FOTA adoption, we at Red Bend are here to assist our customers in making their FOTA updates smaller and faster, ensuring FOTA-friendliness of each new firmware version, and tracking the type and quantity of changes between firmware versions.

For more information, please contact your Red Bend account team or email us at inquiry@redbend.com.

Mobile Software Management everywhere around the world

2007-10-31T08:27:00.000-04:00

Summary of three conferences on three continents in three weeks

By Morten Grauballe
EVP Marketing
Red Bend Software

Reflecting back on the last three weeks, I had a slightly scary flashback to the 1985 remake of “Dancing in the streets” by David Bowie and Mick Jagger. While we did not quite make it to Tokyo, South America, Australia, France, Germany, UK and Africa, Red Bed has been “dancing” in the aisle of three different conferences on three different continents:

Mobile Device Management Americas in Rio
The Symbian Smartphone Show in London
CTIA Wireless I.T. & Entertainment in San Francisco

While the audiences for these three shows are quite different, it is clear that the opportunity for managing mobile software efficiently and as close to the customer as possible exists across the industry, regardless of geography and position in the value chain.

MDM Americas Conference
With 16 different operators from Latin America in the audience, one of the big questions at the MDM Americas Conference (9-10 Oct.) was centered around the challenge of how these operators move from client provisioning of settings to a proactive model where they can manage the deployment of new services into an already installed base of handsets. It was interesting to hear how the migration from TDMA to GSM had given some of these operators, like Telemig Cellular in Brazil, the opportunity to put client provisioning technology and device management at the top of their strategic agenda. TDMA does not support SIM cards, so the customer base moving from phone to phone with the same SIM card was a challenge they had to address from day one with their new GSM networks.

While many of these operators are now in the process of evaluating the business case for FOTA (Firmware Over-the-Air) updating, they are already keen to understand the next generation of technologies. The promise of the Software Component Management Object (SCoMO), the emerging Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) device management standard, was explored in a number of presentations. Once service providers are able to upgrade an installed base of handsets in the field, it is obvious that the time-to-market for new data services can be decoupled from the hardware replacement cycle and hence be improved by 9-18 months. While subscriber growth is still strong in Latin America, data revenues are starting to matter, so this was a topic that resonated well with the audience.

The Symbian Smartphone Show
Moving from the MDM Americas Conference to the Symbian Smartphone Show in London (16-17 Oct.), it was obvious that the move from Rio to London also was a move up the value-chain. You immediately notice the difference. The Smartphone Show is a trade show for companies involved in the creation of the software that makes mobile phones tick. As software is becoming key to service deployment, quite a few operators were sneaking in as well. Motorola’s announcement of their 50% stake in UIQ was the big news of the show. Alain Mutricy, Senior Vice President, Platforms, Motorola Mobile Devices stated:

“Motorola’s investment in UIQ will enable us to bring feature-competitive multimedia devices to market. Its flexibility will enable us to bring devices to market that meet regional preferences or specific operator customisation requirements. We look forward to working closely with our partners, Sony Ericsson and UIQ.”

This nicely set the tone of the show where >100 ISVs were showing their applications and services. Red Bend’s FOTA demo of the Motorola Z8 attracted a lot attention. Not just because it is the first available UIQ handset with FOTA, but also because ISVs are increasingly interested in how they can upgrade software on handsets and hence provide new revenue streams for themselves. “Operator Customisation” is all about providing the end-user with a unique experience with a set of application and services which enhanced their mobile user experience and life-style.

CTIA Wireless I.T. & Entertainment
Last week, CTIA in San Francisco (23-25 Oct.) wrapped up the three conferences in three weeks. Due to the more enterprise-centric nature of the U.S. smartphone market, Microsoft was able to grab the headlines with the launch of their “System Center Mobile Device Manager 2008.” The target for this announcement was not primarily the handset manufacturers or the operators, but rather large enterprises. CIOs are increasingly looking to manage smartphones in a similar manner as laptops. It was therefore no surprise that one of the top features of the System Center Mobile Device Manager 2008 is “OTA Software Deployment:”

“The rich software targeting capabilities of Mobile Device Manager are designed to allow IT professionals to deploy firmware and software updates, with control over which updates are distributed to whom.”

As enterprises usually are forced to provide a broad range of mobile phones to their staff, one of the first questions raised to Microsoft was whether they are planning to support other phones than just Windows Mobile phones using the OMA DM standard. With a vague answer from Microsoft, time will tell.

The three conferences in three weeks showed that the topic of Mobile Software Management is top of the agenda in all parts of the value chain: Handset Manufacturers, Operators, ISVs, Consumers and Enterprises. Although we are making good progress on the SCoMO standard in OMA, there are still a lot of dots that needs to be connected across the value chain before we will be dancing in streets everywhere around the world.

NOTE: For those who are intrigued by the fashion of the 80s, you can find the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74r-_anTO4k. Red Bend takes no responsibility for adverse effects from watching this video.

Improving the Management of Mobile Software

2007-09-18T13:11:00.000-04:00

By John Purcell
Director of Terminals and Platforms
Red Bend Software

There’s a lot of discussion these days about how to improve the management of mobile software. Handset manufacturers are rethinking their architectures, analyzing modularized platforms and examining techniques such as storing programs in a User File System. Their goal is to gain greater access and control over individual software components after the phone has shipped, so that new core applications can be changed, services can be added and features can be customized.

But as we all know, it’s not that easy to create a silo of software inside a mobile phone. As software is developed, there are dependencies and hooks that reach into all layers, including in embedded software residing in ROM.

Take a web browser, for instance. A web browser may require dozens of other software components in order to fully function, such as embedded media players, video streaming components and UI resources. “Containing” the web browser is difficult, because other programs also clearly depend on some of those components.

We can no longer rely on layered but physically distinct frameworks to comprehensively manage the growing amount of software in increasingly sophisticated mobile devices. Manufacturers need management flexibility both for devices that store embedded statically-linked software and devices that employ a more modular and dynamic architecture, including open source platforms.

There are many current and emerging approaches to mobile software management. When evaluating each approach, manufacturers and platform providers should ask:

Can it work across multiple device architectures and platforms?
What existing and emerging standards does it support, to ensure interoperability?
What type of software can it manage, including software embedded in ROM?
Is it scaleable for managing individual software configurations at the mass market level?
Is it reliable, fault-tolerant and secure?
Is it consumer-friendly?

Most importantly, a powerful mobile software management solution should adapt to how software is designed, without imposing restrictions to architecture in order to achieve so-called management.

To learn more, read my article published in Wireless Design & Development called, “Beyond Platformization: Using Mobile Software Management to Achieve Feature Customization of Mobile Phones.”

The “Short Blanket” Effect – Engineering Challenges in Implementing FOTA

2007-09-10T12:31:00.000-04:00

By Sharon Peleg
Founder and CTO
Red Bend Software

Updating mobile firmware is not a simple task. Some have compared it to updating software on a PC, but there are in fact many engineering challenges that make updating mobile firmware much more difficult. While the generator running on a PC in the office can practically enjoy no resource limitations, the design of the update process on mobile devices must take into account the lack of any auxiliary data, lack of extra storage to be used as temporary buffers, lack of RAM in some cases and a much weaker CPU. Ineffective approaches could easily lead to conflicts between the various resources, and result in the “short blanket” effect – if you pull it from one side, the other side is left uncovered.

When evaluating, testing and integrating FOTA on mobile devices, manufacturers and operators should consider the following:
· Speed, accuracy and predictability of update generation
· No spare flash memory on the device
· Fault tolerance
· Size of the delta file and update package
· Positive user experience
· Updating compressed firmware
· Type of flash memory

In this blog entry, I will address the first three.

Speed, Accuracy and Predictability of Update Generation
The update algorithm must be fast enough to generate updates at a reasonable speed and should provide sufficient feedback to allow proper understanding of the behavior of the update process on the device. Another equally important requirement is the need for the update generation to be predictable. It is not only sufficient that the generator will produce a small update when few changes are introduced to the source, it must do so consistently.

No Spare Flash Memory on the Device
The fact that there is no spare flash memory for building two side-by-side alternating versions when updating the new version (as some embedded devices can afford to have) leaves no option but to perform an update in-place. In-place delta-updating is challenged by limited spare flash and RAM resources to hold the new version.

Fault Tolerance
When updating firmware on mobile devices, it is crucial to assume that the process could be interrupted at any point in time due to a power failure. Power failure during flash re-programming not only can corrupt the written flash sector but also leave the device in a useless state. In addition to having to be both in-place and fault-tolerant, the process must run at maximum speed to minimize downtime. Fault tolerance requires writing additional data when updating in order to maintain the integrity of the persistent data at any point in time. The challenge here is to minimize writing data in order to minimize the number of re-flash operations.

Learn more about implementing FOTA in our new white paper, “Principles of Updating Mobile Firmware Over-the-Air”.

Standards Acceleration Is Sign of Growing Market Adoption for Device Management

2007-08-29T11:05:00.000-04:00

By Elad Granot
Director of Standards and Alliances
Red Bend Software

Standards play a critical role in emerging technologies in their path towards technical maturity and in their quest for widespread market adoption. Recently I have been reviewing the OMA Device Management enablers with a focus on how the older deliverables of the OMA-DM Working Group differ from the upcoming deliverables being worked today. When examining the evolution of OMA DM papers and working procedures over the past years, I have noticed several positive signs in the development of device management enablers which show the growing market adoption of over-the-air software update services.

A number of signs bring me to this conclusion, and the rest of this post will point out these factors.

As a background, let’s look briefly at the DM historical milestones:
· April 2002 – SyncML Specifications V1.1 are approved by SyncML Initiative.
· November 2002 – The SyncML Initiative is merged into OMA
· May 2003 – SyncML specs converted to OMA format, creating SyncML Common 1.1.2, Data Synchronization 1.1.2 (DS) and Device Management 1.1.2 (DM)
· December 2003 – SyncML-DM 1.1.2 is approved by OMA
· November 2004 – SyncML-DM renamed to OMA-DM
· Jun 2005 – OMA-DM 1.2 spec reaches Candidate state
· July 2006 – OMA-DS 1.2 release is approved by OMA
· February 2007 – OMA-DM 1.2 release is approved by OMA

Sign #1 – Established Organizational Processes Speed Time to Market

In the beginning, the work was relatively slow, mainly because the establishment of OMA organizational processes was happening in parallel with the standardization of DM and Firmware Update Management Object (FUMO). This fact, along with the work that was needed to adapt the outputs of the SyncML Initiative to the overall ‘look and feel’ of OMA outputs, created a challenge for the DM Working Group that resulted in some unavoidable compromise in terms of work quality and timely delivery of the standard.

The good news is that these historical constraints no longer affect the current DM Enablers (also known as Management Objects, or MO’s) being worked today in the OMA-DM Working Group. OMA process issues that were not clear in the early days of the organization have been clarified and significantly improved since, allowing faster progress. For example, recently a new type of document template (named Data Specification) was created in OMA to be used for all OMA deliverables for which there are no behavior associated. Some MO’s are perfect candidates for using this template, which will facilitate easier and quicker release of these MO’s by relaxing some of the ‘classic’ time-consuming production steps used for other standard documents which are totally redundant in the context of these Management Objects. OMA is further working on shortening the time to market for new device management technologies and has recently created an ad-hoc group dedicated to investigating and proposing further improvements.

Sign #2 – The Success of FUMO 1.0

FUMO 1.0 was the first separate standard MO on top of the DM protocol. It became candidate in mid 2006 and released as an approved enabler, after a successful period of interoperability testing in February 2007. FUMO, which has been proven by extremely high success scores in interoperability fests, is the first DM application that expands OMA-DM beyond simple parameter configuration. This DM enabler is being deployed by leading vendors in the mobile industry, and provides a concrete and live environment from which the DM community can learn which design principles are working best and which concepts can be improved.

Sign #3 – More Vendors Participating Leads to More Robust Technology that is More Widely Adopted

Players from across the mobile value chain (and recently not only mobile, with the proliferation of OMA into the fixed environment) constantly show high interest and involvement in the DM Working Group, which implies high commitment and strong belief in that work. It also means greater motivation for companies to propose and push their initiatives, which is a vital factor in a contribution-based organization such as OMA. With the formal release of DM 1.2 (and FUMO 1.0) this level of interest is expected to sustain, if not grow. In fact, some ideas have been raised about taking DM beyond the mobile environment, in order to address some of the challenges emerging in the fixed telecom environment.

Sign #4 – Expanding Use of the Technology Leads to New Requirements

With this increased momentum, it should come as no surprise that there are multiple DM enablers showing nice progress: DiagMon, Scheduling, ConnMO, and DCMO. For example, the Software Component Management Object (SCOMO) Requirements reached Candidate and the Architecture is now being reviewed, while the technical specification also showed significant progress.

On top of that, the recent creation of new enablers (such as Lock and Wipe MO) validates the momentum of DM being an acceptable framework for management in the mobile industry.

Sign #5 – Care for High Quality, Consistency and Clarity

In addition to this progress, the quality of the deliverables also improves as the DM Work Group improves the consistency across architectures of these various enablers. This consistency facilitates greater re-use of concepts, which results in better clarity, improved quality and shorter time for developing the specifications. But as an extra consequential bonus, it also suggests a greater potential for vendors to reuse some common components across their different MO implementations.

Furthermore, many contributions proposed for the standard show great care for clarity and simplicity of the specification text, resulting in higher quality and ease of implementation.

Summary

In summary, the future of DM standardization appears to be positive. It builds on the strong foundation of standards created since 2002. With recent improvements to the process and organization around OMA, I believe the momentum surrounding DM and the various Management Objects will continue. Since OMA is a market-driven (and moreover, a contribution-driven) organization, the acceleration of the standards process is a strong indication that the business of DM is also taking off.

FOTA Takes Off on User Blogs

2007-07-05T10:24:00.000-04:00

By Morten Grauballe
EVP, Marketing
Red Bend Software

Following the uptake of FOTA on the various blog sites gives good insight into what mobile consumers (although probably sophisticated consumers) are looking for. There are a few links at the end to explore.

Studying the various blogs, the key questions seem to be:

“Does my phone support software updating?”
It might sound like there is an obvious answer to this question, but it is actually quite complicated. As consumers are finding out, there are at least 3 methods by which you can get new software: a) service points can reflash your phone, b) you can download software to your PC and do an Over-The-Cable (OTC) update, and c) you can do a Firmware update Over-The-Air (FOTA). All phones will support a) – it is mainly a question of figuring out which service point to go to. Most phones launched today will support b), although quite a few old phones will not. You can go to the handset manufacturers to figure out which phone is supported. Phones with c) have been coming during the last 12 months. Some manufacturers are ahead of others.

“Is there an update available?”
If you have FOTA on your phone, it is very simple to check. You go into the software update menu and check for updates. If there is an update available it will tell you. In terms of OTC updates, you can look at the manufacturers’ sites, but they do not advertise new updates very prominently. It is therefore often easier to download and install the software update to your PC and check that way. In terms of service points, look on the internet first, but at the end of the day, you can only be 100% sure by actually going there.

“How do I do it?”
Once the user has figured out 1) and 2), it is relatively easy to do a software update. Both the PC-based updating and the FOTA updating are straight forward in terms of usability. One warning though: All PC-based updating will erase your personal data, so it is vital to backup your data and restore it to the phone once you are done. There are few unhappy blog postings on this topic.

“What are the improvements?”
This is the hottest topic with bloggers posting new version numbers of firmware, new versions of applications, and finally observations of improvements. These blogs are good reading as it clearly shows that software updating is used for far more than simple defect fixing. Consumers are seeing functional improvements and usability improvements which significantly increases the value of the handsets. In some (very rare) cases, handset manufacturers will point to the changes in the firmware and lists will be posted to the blogs.

Sony Ericsson K550i:
http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php?p=9475790#post9475790

Sony Ericsson W600i:
http://www.howardforums.com/showpost.php?p=6993975&postcount=2

Nokia E62:
http://bulletproof-incorporation.blogspot.com/

Nokia N95:
http://www.about-nokia.com/blog/

Nokia S60 in general:
http://blogs.s60.com/tommi/2006/09/nokia_software_update_availabl_1.html

Observations on the MDM Europe Conference: SwissCom unleashes the power of FOTA with an innovative business model

2007-06-29T13:19:00.000-04:00

By Morten Grauballe
EVP, Marketing
Red Bend Software

SwissCom Mobile’s Lukas Fluri, Head of Terminal Management, made an inspired presentation at Informa’s MDM and User Experience conference on the 26th & 27th of June in London. Based on a thorough analysis and a number of trials, SwissCom Mobile evaluated various approaches to FOTA during 2H of 2006. The outcome of their evaluation can been seen below:

Source: SwissCom Mobile presentation at Informa’s MDM and User Experience conference on the 26th & 27th of June in London

Based on this analysis, SwissCom Mobile has agreed strict service level agreements (SLAs) with the device suppliers. The agreements cover:

Process for publishing new firmware version (OTA and OTC)
Report / Statistics
Interface for checking device status and push FOTA update
Performance / availability of service

The service is now up and running here => http://www.swisscom-mobile.ch/scm/kd_software_aktualisierung-en.aspx

Lukas’ presentaion shows how a medium-sized operator (4.6 million subscribers) can get FOTA up and running at minimal cost with maximum benefits to their subscribers. Very impressive indeed!

A New Paradigm for FOTA

2007-06-27T14:13:00.000-04:00

By Yoram Salinger
CEO
Red Bend Software

Version 5 of vCurrent© Mobile continues the record of innovation from Red Bend, and marks a major leap forward in FOTA technology.

In our newest release of vCurrent Mobile, we have introduced Background Updating and, with that, have completely changed the paradigm of FOTA. For the first time, consumers will be able to use their phones while the FOTA update is taking place. This capability significantly improves the mobile user experience by creatively eliminating the issue of update time and the need for the phone to be taken off-line during the update process.

Red Bend has a rich culture of innovation, one where we listen closely to our customers' needs and where we continuously challenge ourselves to do more, like inventing Instant Failsafe to guarantee successful completion of the FOTA update even with a power loss to the phone. As the leader in FOTA, we recognize our responsibility to keep introducing great new ideas that help increase the penetration of FOTA and improve the value that FOTA brings to our customers and the mobile market.

With Background Updating, making FOTA seamless to consumers is a major step forward in driving mass market adoption and we believe will pave the way for new revenue-generation opportunities from over-the-air software update services. Our commitment is that we won't stop there.

We invite you to learn more about this and other features in version 5 of vCurrent Mobile.

Driving Up Usage of FOTA

2007-06-25T11:28:00.000-04:00

How to go from 1% to 35% of users updating their mobile phones

By Morten Grauballe
EVP, Marketing
Red Bend Software

Proactively-promoted and customer-targeted FOTA updates can drive 35% of consumers to update the software on their mobile phones. With over 100 million vCurrent Mobile FOTA clients in the market, Red Bend is sharing its experience in how manufacturers and operators can drive up consumer acceptance of FOTA and ensure customer loyalty through refreshed software.

The use of Firmware updating Over-The-Air (FOTA) has replaced service point reflashing as the preferred way to keep software on mobile phones up to date. We estimate that more than 3 million mobile phone consumers have updated their software using Red Bend's vCurrent Mobile. There is, however, a diverse set of approaches to how FOTA is brought to market and promoted to consumers. In turn, the approach taken determines the percentage of consumers willing to update their handsets.

At one end of the spectrum is the "pure customer-pull" model, where the FOTA update is triggered by the user when finding the software update feature in the phone's menu and the user initiates the update himself. Experience shows that around 1% of users will carry out an update based on a pure customer-pull model. This number increases to about 3% by promoting FOTA as a service on customer web sites and during customer support calls. Manufacturers in Europe and operators in the US and Japan are running web portals where FOTA is explained and promoted to the consumer, helping to drive up the usage and thereby customer satisfaction.
Next step on the FOTA-usage ladder is the "promotion-push, customer-pull" model. In this model, a message is pushed to consumers to encourage them to update, but consumers still decide whether or not to perform the update. In Japan, operators have been successful in using SMS as a way of encouraging customers to update their phones. One manufacturer's GSM and 3G handsets provide a time-triggered, pop-up dialog, which asks consumers whether they have tried the software update service. We have seen the "promotion-push, customer-pull" model increase FOTA adoption to as much as 35% of consumers, but achieving this is highly dependent on what benefits are being promoted to consumers that motivate them to perform the update.

Based on our experience in working with manufacturers and operators worldwide, FOTA usage in the 25-35% range can be regularly achieved if consumers are offered new features or functionality as part of the promotion push. If, on the other hand, the software update service is actively marketed to consumers but without any direct, tangible, and visible benefit of updating, the adoption is consistently below 15%.

The final step on the FOTA-usage ladder is "pure push" by the operator or handset manufacturer. With this approach, it is theoretically possible to update 100% of the installed base of mobile phones, as the update file is pushed to the consumer and triggered automatically by the phone. It is, however, an approach which raises concerns around customer privacy and control. There have not been any known examples of this approach to date. Operators and handset manufacturers have indicated that they would be willing to use this approach when dealing with software security holes that could be exploited by malicious applications, but have yet to take this step.

With Red Bend's new Background Update feature, available in version 5 of vCurrent Mobile, FOTA adoption becomes relevant for all users as software updates become a seamless experience.

Finally, it is also worth noting that flat-rate data pricing has an impact on the number of consumers who decide to update their phones. In Japan and the US, where flat-rate data packages are available, this is not an issue. But in Europe, where consumers are still charged per megabyte of data, there are a significant number deciding to cancel the update before it has even started due to concerns about cost. Yet we know that FOTA updates files are quite compact, and therefore the actual charges are minimal.

We all can do more to increase consumer awareness of FOTA and educate them on the benefits of updating the software in their mobile phones. The manufacturers and operators who take the lead will be rewarded with lower customer support costs, higher customer satisfaction, and more brand loyalty.