Qualcomm’s BREW gets Flashed : Vendors roll out wares during annual conference

Qualcomm Inc.’s annual BREW developer’s conference got underway this morning, and the obligatory stream of news from the company’s home base in San Diego has kicked into high gear:
–Qualcomm and Adobe Systems Inc. announced a new BREW Mobile Platform with integrated Adobe Flash technology, a move that gives developers a larger cache of tools to use as they create more rich applications and content for the platform. The upgrade will bring Flash technology to mass market handsets and further blur the lines between Web content and mobile applications. The new platform also includes a new set of APIs and enhancements that will support access to device databases, connectivity support, touchscreen user interface development and more, the company said. “BREW Mobile Platform will combine the strengths of Qualcomm and Adobe to deliver an extremely robust wireless platform and development tool chain. This combination provides exciting opportunities for operators, device manufacturers, publishers and developers to create advanced devices, applications and services for the mass market with features typically only available on high-end devices,” said Bob Briggs, senior VP and general manager of Qualcomm Internet Services. Verizon Wireless was the first U.S. carrier to embrace Flash and is also the largest U.S. carrier using the BREW platform.
–U.S. Cellular Corp. gave JumpTap the nod, allowing the content company access to U.S. Cellular’s customers. U.S. Cellular subscribers will gain one-click access to the Web and search results that will pull relevant results based on the carrier’s data and usage patterns, the company said. The deal will also bring targeted advertising to the fray. “Using JumpTap’s made-for-mobile solutions, our customers will find what they’re looking for quickly and easily,” said Alan Ferber, VP of sales operations and chief marketing officer for U.S. Cellular. “This partnership helps us build the best mobile Web experience in the industry.” Through the deal, U.S. Cellular customers will gain access to news, sports, flight updates, white pages, chat services, maps and directions via JumpTap’s categories. Local and national content publishers and advertisers will have the opportunity to bid on search queries to reach their targeted markets, the company added.
–Nuance Communications Inc. demonstrated its Nuance Mobile Speech Platform 2.5 at the conference, highlighting its performance improvements and new developer tools. The application includes speech recognition, open-ended dictation and text-to-speech features as well as pre-built components for local search, mobile navigation, content search and mobile Web search.
–Ontela Inc. brought its cameraphone sharing service to the BREW platform through NTELOS Holdings Corp., a telecommunications provider based in Virginia. NTELOS is the fourth carrier to launch an Ontela-based services. The company’s PhotoCopter services will be brought to NTELOS’ BREW Consumer Portal, the companies announced. The service costs $3 a month for unlimited photo transfers. Ontela also announced that it received new investments from Steamboat Ventures and existing investors Hunt Ventures, Oak Investment Partners and Voyager Capital. The company did not disclose the amount raised, but it previously raised $4.5 million in November 2006.