Volantis Delivers Ajax-Enabled Mobile Content Framework 4.0 Delivery Platform

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Wednesday, October 11, 2006; 02:23 AM

Volantis,  supplier of mobile Content Adaptation solutions, announced the availability of Volantis’ Mobile Content Framework 4.0. Volantis’ new release improves mobile Internet browsing through dynamic web applications, providing a unique and rich browsing experience. Framework 4.0 represents the Company’s most recent initiative to achieving its vision of Web technologies as a ubiquitous platform supporting advanced applications for both fixed and mobile devices.

Framework provides a full suite of solutions to enable the development, integration and deployment of mobile applications. More than 50 customers - including wireless carriers, content owners and online businesses addressing over 160 million subscribers - have utilized Volantis’ Framework to mobilize content. Framework uniquely separates content, design, and device issues into abstract policies, providing a "create once, run anywhere" environment that reduces complexity, cost and time to market for both development and maintenance.

Framework 4.0 introduces support for AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML)-enabled browsers. AJAX support enables the creation of highly efficient, interactive Web applications. The integrated offering supports the ability to deliver content to devices with basic browsers and those with support for AJAX.

The introduction of the device independent library of AJAX-based widgets will allow the construction of high capability mobile client applications similar in profile to the emerging generation of richly featured web clients such as Google Maps, GMail or Flickr. Combining these pre-built libraries with device-independent mark-up also reduces the software development effort, enabling lightweight programming models. United with Framework's signature automated Intelligent Content Adaptation, this results in a faster time to market and reduced porting cost for new services compared with traditional, programming-based approaches for creating client side capabilities.

"The Web has become the fastest growing platform for applications," said Dave Raggett, Principal Researcher at Volantis and W3C Fellow. "The Volantis Mobile Content Framework provides a very attractive solution for developers wishing to ride the wave of rich web applications for mobile users, and can dramatically reduce costs compared with using J2ME, BREW, Symbian or MS Mobile."

"Framework 4.0 enables mobilized businesses to further expand their subscriber base for additional revenue gains,” said Mark Watson, Chief Technology Officer of Volantis. “We will continue to advance Framework to enable our customers to efficiently expand their mobile services.”

This release adds further value to existing XDIME applications and offers new opportunities for developers to provide device independent applications using the Volantis Framework and technologies such as Ruby on Rails, SOAP, Web Services, Java and PHP. The resulting novel browser-based applications can be delivered on-demand to the mobile device rather than having to be pre-installed. The new widget library includes support for various dynamic visual effects as well as a number of dynamic screen items such as marquees, carousels, folding menu items and pop-ups.

Volantis is a founding sponsor of the W3C Mobile Web Initiative. Its Chief Scientist, Dr. Rhys Lewis, chairs the W3C Device Independence Working Group where the DIAL language was developed. Dr. Dave Raggett, Principal Researcher, is a Fellow of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). Dr. Raggett is currently the W3C Activity Lead for Multimodal Interaction, in which voice, vision, touch and gesture are used together to enhance a user's experience of the Web.

Volantis is used around the world by organizations such as 3, CBS, Channel 4, Cingular, CSC, Discovery, eBay.co.uk, FT.com, Hearst, HP, IBM, lastminute.com, MobileOne, Orange Poland, Reuters, Telefonica Moviles, Telecom Italia Mobile and Telenor Mobil and World Wrestling Entertainment. Volantis also Chairs the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Device Independence Working Group and is a Founding Member of the W3C Mobile Web Initiative.

Volantis’ global headquarters are in Seattle, USA, with international offices in Guildford, UK, Hong Kong, China, Madrid, Spain and Krakow, Poland. Volantis is privately held with investors Accel Partners, Kennet Partners, and SOFTBANK Europe Ventures.