Richard: So what prompted the move to Red Bend, Morten?

Morten: I’d been with Symbian for about 7 years, working on product management for versions 8 and 9 of Symbian OS. During that time I had become aware of the fact that the mobile software lifecycle is changing. As new devices go to market it is becoming important that they are included in the software lifecycle. Red Bend is working in the last segment of that lifecycle, where the handset is in the market. This is something of a final frontier in software lifecycle management and perhaps the biggest remaining challenge; so when the opportunity came to work for Red Bend I could not turn it down.

Richard: So how is Red Bend addressing this challenge?

Morten: Currently the main focus is on firmware updating. What that means from a technical perspective is that we compare two binary images, using the output from the linker and the complier, to generate an update to existing software that is as small as small as possible. This is then applied to the firmware by Red Bend’s client.

Until 2004 this technology was very focused on feature phones. During that time Red Bend signed up companies like Siemens, LG and Sony Ericsson. The focus shifted in 2005 to open phone operating systems, like Symbian OS. These operating systems present new challenges. Their architecture is much more complex, the code is divided into many more segments. You have got DSP software, application processor software, and application software, which is often divided into RAM or ROM components. To address this we have updated our OTA update software and released vCurrent® Mobile Version 3. This supports Symbian OS, and in particular version 9.

Richard: How positive has the uptake been? Are people practically doing any of this yet?

Morten: I think it is fair to say that most of the handset deals have been done, even if they have not been announced yet. The device manufactures are starting to integrate our technology into their handsets and these handsets are coming to market. Siemens and Sony Ericsson have already launched devices incorporating our technology and our other customers will be coming to market soon. We are forecast an installed base of 100 million phones with our client by the end of 2006.

The big issue is whether operators are going to be ready implement OTA firmware updates. This is the thing we are working hardest at right now; trying to convince operators. The big hurdle is contracts. Many operators have warranty clauses in their supply deals which include penalties if the firmware needs to be updated. So the handset manufacturers are understandably reluctant to ask operators to implement OTA firmware updates. The tricky thing is finding the right middle ground, where operators don’t think device vendors are simply using OTA firmware updates as a way to get around poor quality assurance and see it more as providing a service to their customers. Using our technology operators could get new phones to customers sooner, with a mechanism to tidy up minor defects and, in the future, keep the phones current and fresh.

The reality is that the more complex phones have service releases of their firmware. So one of the strong selling points for operators to get them to consider the time it takes their customers to travel across town, go to a sales point and get their phone flashed. Also, there is no standard for re-flashing, so there have to be tools for each handset at each point of sale and you have got to educate the point of sales people in the process. We estimates the saving range as anything from $10 to $50 per handset, over millions of handsets that is a considerable saving.

Richard: Does the technology offer more than what some might see as simply bug fixing?

Morten: There is indeed more to it than that. The next phase is really about generating revenue, not simply saving money by update some of the firmware. What we are good at is updating that monolithic core code which provides all the basic capabilities of the phone. One of the carrots for updating this core code is that new features offer opportunities for new applications and services. However these new applications and services will often be delivered as a SIS file in Symbian OS. So we are looking at ways of provisioning SIS files at the same time as we do a firmware upgrade. This would keep the whole process invisible to the customer.. they would see no obvious OTA download of a firmware update, they would just find the new service on their phone.

Richard: So does the technology potentially provide another mechanism for the OTA delivery of applications?

Morten: While there are specific instances where this would work, we are not focusing on that market generally. We are more concerned with situations where, say, an operator has a heavy duty service they want to deliver that needs an update to the graphics engine or an update to one of their core components in the ROM. We can go in and update those particular items. Our focus is very much on core component updates which the operator may do a couple of times a year, not application download which might happen on a daily basis.

Richard: Presumably you are also limited in what you can do with applications because of the signing requirements in Symbian OS v9?

Morten: Yes, that is one of the things that we are looking at currently. With earlier Symbian OS versions, we could load applications directly through our client, but with Symbian OS v9 we have to go through the Symbian installer to add any application software. We are having discussions with Symbian about how we do that. In parallel we are still working with feature phones, because there is no way you can update your applications there, the only way is with software like ours.

Richard: Are you looking at other operating systems as well?

Morten: Yes, we have started to look at Linux. Many of the things we have learned working with Symbian OS will help us in that area. However at the moment feature phones and Symbian are the main tracks for us.

For more information on Red Bend and vCurrent® Mobile Version 3 see; www.redbend.com