Hi everyone. We thought we’d mix it up a bit and have some other DeviceAnywhere folks contribute to the blog. So expect to be hearing more from me and the other members of the product team going forward, interspersed with Faraz’s entries.
I’ve been working in the mobile space for over 10 years now, and one of the reasons I first got into mobile is just as true today: it’s always changing. One of the major changes of the past year is the infamous App Store trend, first mainstreamed by Apple. Now you can’t go a month without a manufacturer, operator, or other mobile content channel announcing it is launching some type of application portal.
With our DeviceAnywhere service, we’ve traditionally aligned by mobile operator. It’s the way we sell it (by package), and even the way we display a lot of our information. (With over 1500 handsets, dozens of operators, and 6 countries offered, we need to be more and more conscious of displaying information in an organized and useful manner!) But increasingly it seems that operator alignment no longer meets the vast majority of mobile developers’ needs. Because the size of the mobile data market has finally achieved critical mass, and manufacturers, platform vendors, and other content delivery channels are creating storefronts that serve a large audience, some companies are beginning to specialize and target their mobile offerings. And with the advent of the App Store, sometimes these products are not targeted at a specific carrier network. It is not uncommon to find a company focused on smartphones, or MS Mobile, or Motorolas, etc.
As a result, we’re changing things up a bit. In the last year, we have launched the Motorola, Sony Ericsson, Forum Nokia, and BlackBerry VDLs, and created packages aligned with these companies. We’ve recently beefed up all of these packages, adding many more handsets. Going forward, you will see even more packages aligned by manufacturer, by operating system, or other special interest. Many of the actual handsets we offer will be available through more than one package (e.g. the Verizon Motorola V3M can be found in both the Verizon package and the US/CA Motorola package), and you will be able to choose the packages that best align with your product strategy. We won't stop aligning around operators - this still works for the majority of our customers - but we will be providing more alternatives.
So - stay tuned for all sorts of new DeviceAnywhere packages. And if you have a target market that we are not currently addressing, please drop us a line at features@deviceanywhere.com (this alias comes to the product team) and let us know what you think.
-Rachel (VP Product Marketing at DeviceAnywhere)
