Funambol has launched a sync service for Android devices, and is hoping telcos will be interested in offering the service to users as an operator-based service.
Called mm4android (‘MobileMe for Android’), Funambol said that the app allows users to sync contacts, calendars, tasks, notes and pictures with any Android device.
For those that don’t want to hold their breath waiting for their operator to offer the service to them, mm4Android is available on the Android Marketplace on a direct to consumer basis, but Funambol is also hoping that operators will be interested in taking the service on a white label basis. Funambol says that by offering the sync service to subscribers, operators could have an alternative to device-specific sync solutions that cannot work across different brands of device.
mm4android syncs PIM data with Outlook and photos with cloud services such as Facebook, Flickr and Picasa as well as other mobile phones and computers. It syncs data and content in the cloud with Android and non-Android devices. Its basic plan provides a small amount of free storage before users are prompted to upgrade.
Funambol is pinning its hopes on the growing range of Android devices, namechecking the Motorola Xoom, HTC Facebook Phone and Apple iPad2 in its press release, and on the growing tendency of users to have any combination of a phone, notebook, tablet, laptop or PC. It argues that as a result, users will need a simpler way to sync between devices.
So will operators be interested in offering a service that sync’s users’ data and pictures? Some do already, of course, but there is still very limited penetration of a service that would seem to lend itself well to the operator subscription billing model.
Hal Steger, Funambol’s VP of Worldwide Marketing, told Mobile Europe during February’s Mobile World Congress that operators “are coming around to thinking” about offering such services.
“They can’t just sit there and let Google, Android, Facebook, steal their users,” he said. “Operators like the fact that they have a story they can tell to their subscribers, to be the trusted digital vault of a user’s personal space in the cloud, working with all their different devices.”
There is an argument that there is a latent consumer demand for such services. Steger said that when Funambol launched its sync solution for Blackberry, it saw ten thousand users sign up over the first two weeks – without the solution being pushed through official Blackberry channels. In that case Funambol offered a free service for the first 50Mb of storage.