| Qualcomm Incorporated (Nasdaq: QCOM), a leading developer and innovator of advanced wireless technologies and mobile data solutions, and Kirusa, a leading vendor of Voice SMS and developer of mobile value-added services, today announced that the companies have entered into a license agreement to customize and integrate Qualcomm’s Short Voice Service™ (SVS) client technology into Kirusa’s Voice SMS platform for distribution to wireless operators, device manufacturers and OEMs worldwide.
Qualcomm’s SVS is a versatile, user-friendly voice messaging service consisting of a BREW® application resident on the handset. The sender launches the application and records a voice message, which will be delivered via Kirusa’s Voice SMS platform to mobile devices and landlines.
“We are pleased to work with Qualcomm on Voice SMS, an exciting addition to the world of short message services,” said Ewald Anderl, CTO of Kirusa. “We are confident that SVS will drive new, long-term revenue streams for operators and handset vendors, while offering more personalization options for the consumer. We plan to work closely with Qualcomm to bring the benefits of Voice SMS and the SVS client to operators around the world.”
The integrated Voice SMS solution will feature:
- SMS-like, asynchronous messaging with voice rather than text
- Accesses the phone’s address book to send messages, without the need to remember the recipiens’s phone number
- Storage of voice SMS messages on the handset or on the server
- Interoperability with BREW and non-BREW handsets
- Send and reply to SMS messages by voice on all handsets and on all networks
- Direct Listen™ – directly listen to a message of interest, with a single click
- Group messaging
- International Voice SMS, to send Voice SMS messages to international recipients
- Seamless interoperability between networks.
Kirusa’s Voice SMS solution has been selected by more than twenty operators around the world.
“Qualcomm’s strategic investment in Kirusa, a Qualcomm Ventures portfolio company, helped bring forth a joint platform between SVS and Voice SMS to develop a robust product with a great user experience,” said Michal Koenig, senior director of product management for Qualcomm Engineer Services Group. “Voice SMS technology is growing rapidly and will continue to grow in the next few years due to a highly user-friendly interface. Regions such as China and India, where multiple languages exist, are expected to account for a large percentage of new worldwide mobile users and Voice SMS customers.”
Kirusa and Qualcomm are completing integration of the SVS client with the Kirusa Voice SMS platform. The solution is being demonstrated at the Brew 2008 conference in San Diego from May 28-30, 2008. |
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