While the Wireless Application Protocol has provided a common standard for microbrowser technology, several firms are looking to offer their own flavor of the wireless Internet experience, and not all are convinced WAP will remain the popular standard it is today. Pixo Inc. is one such firm.
Although a member of the WAP Forum, the company believes that future packet-based wireless networks will support Internet Protocol and therefore will negate the necessity for WAP to deliver Internet content to wireless phones. Also, Pixo feels handsets need a more robust user interface so wireless Internet services are easier to use.
The company has developed a software platform for mobile phones, which sits atop the operating system layer, that combines a flexible user interface with personal information management functions. It also recently added microbrowser technology, which Pixo believes puts it in a good position to meet the demands of tomorrow’s wireless Internet marketplace.
The browser is a dual-mode, Hypertext Markup Language/Wireless Markup Language, Wireless Application Protocol-compliant system optimized for packet-based 2.5 generation networks, such as General Packet Radio Service.
“Our philosophy is about working with standards. We’ve had an HTML browser for some time that we decided to introduce now,” said Richard Rifredi, Pixo’s vice president of Internet solutions. “WAP is the first step, but now we’re moving toward Internet standards.”
Because WAP is the solution of the moment, he said Pixo’s browser needed to support it so it could read content from all sources. To do so, Pixo licensed a WML solution from Sweden’s AU System and integrated it with the browser. But in the long run, Pixo believes WAP-based content will represent the minority of Internet content read on wireless phones.
“One thing you have to learn is you don’t bet against the Internet,” Rifredi said. “You better make standards that are Internet standards. If you make standards that are focused just on wireless, you’re going to lose.”
While the browser is there, Pixo’s primary concern is the platform, which is designed to better integrate a phone’s user interface with the services made available from any browser. The idea was to create a platform that could accept other applications easily without the need to change them much.
That required the platform to be extremely flexible, Rifredi said. For example, some services made available by wireless Internet connectivity require the user to learn how to use it-sometimes through trial and error. Rifredi said Pixo’s platform provides a common way to use all services, allowing the user to master use of those wireless Internet services more quickly.
“As a subscriber or consumer using the product, you’re not learning how to use it. You’re just clicking a button and the service works,” he said.
Bowing to the strength of the Internet to further this effort, the company recently hired former Netscape executive Dave Rothschild as president and chief executive officer. He was vice president of client products at Netscape, which was acquired by America Online Inc.
“From the experience perspective, he spent years at Netscape taking services and integrating them into the user interface of their browser,” Rifredi said.
To date, manufacturers Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., GVC Corp. and Scout Electromedia have licensed Pixo’s platform and browser. Also, Japanese phone distributor Hikari Tsushin invested $29.5 million in the company.
