Bellevue, Washington, United States
InfoSpace (NASDAQ:INSP), a leading developer of mobile technologies, has announced the formal launch of its mCore(R) Mobile Services Platform, a suite of customizable mobile infrastructure services designed to help carriers offer their subscribers a seamless, intuitive experience for finding and enjoying mobile content and information on the go. mCore is an innovative end-to-end technology platform that enables a world class unified mobile media experience spanning mobile search, storefronts, portals and messaging. Carriers can deploy mCore in concert with their existing infrastructure in part or as a whole to drive revenue across multiple areas.
According to Jupiter Research, annual mobile data revenue is forecasted to grow by $3 billion over the next five years. Consumers say that one of the main reasons they would be more likely to use mobile data services, such as downloads, is if the user experience was better. mCore addresses this issue by delivering a unified, consistent user interface across all mobile data services, offering carriers the opportunity to drive increased adoption and revenue while managing costs.
"mCore represents the next generation in mobile platform services," said Steve Elfman, executive vice president of InfoSpace's mobile business unit. "Both carriers and mobile users are tired of dealing with multiple technologies and interfaces when it comes to information and content on the mobile phone. mCore resolves those issues for the industry by delivering a solution that is intelligent for the users and easy for carriers to integrate."
The InfoSpace mCore Platform
The mCore Platform provides an end-to-end technology infrastructure to help carriers reduce ongoing maintenance costs, improve customer service, increase opportunities for revenue and simplify the end user experience. Carriers can deploy the back-end technologies into their existing infrastructure in part or as a whole to offer a best-in-class unified mobile data experience while driving revenue. In addition to hosting solutions and capabilities, the mCore Platform includes:
-- Search: InfoSpace mCore Search delivers seamlessly blended, highly relevant results to offer users a one-stop mobile search experience while enabling multiple monetization models for carriers.
-- Portal: InfoSpace mCore Portal provides an intuitive graphical interface designed to maximize the interactive capabilities of the full range of today's mobile devices. Powerful management tools allow for rapid content and service deployment in an integrated, personalizable environment, while also allowing for managed promotional campaigns to drive sales of premium services such as music, ringtones, games, and wallpapers.
-- Storefront: InfoSpace mCore Storefront makes purchasing content easy and satisfying for a broad cross-section of mobile consumers, and provides carriers with flexible merchandising tools including packaged bundles, subscriptions and tailored recommendations.
-- Messaging: InfoSpace mCore Messaging serves as a natural extension of the Portal, offering real-time, push-based access to breaking news, sports and entertainment via SMS or MMS alerts, seamlessly integrated with carriers' gateway infrastructure.
-- Managed Web: InfoSpace mCore Managed Web offers the best operator-controlled Web experience, creating choice for users and additional revenues from web search and mobile advertising, while offering both unlimited and safe Web experiences.
Carriers Rally Around mCore
InfoSpace recently announced that Virgin Mobile has deployed the full suite of mCore Platform services, allowing the European carrier to offer its subscribers the ability to search the Web, WAP sites and Virgin Mobile's own portal and storefront. Several other key carrier partners have also announced plans in recent months to deploy components of the mCore Platform, demonstrating momentum and demand for a more unified, relevant and easy-to-deploy mobile services solution.
"Deploying the complete mCore suite of services will introduce significant cost savings and operational efficiencies within our mobile infrastructure," said Nick White, Head of Digital Services and NPD at Virgin Mobile. "InfoSpace's integrated mobile platform allows us to offer a simple, unified experience for our customers, and focus our energy and resources on providing the best mobile user experience available."
Today's announcement reflects InfoSpace's sharpened focus on its mobile services business and comes on the heels of significant investments in the mCore Platform. The company recently announced partnerships with FAST, a leading developer of search technologies, and InfoGin, a pioneer and world leader in the field of Web-to-mobile content adaptation. FAST Search & Transfer will be integrated as part of mCore, to deliver a joint mobile search service which will enable carriers to take more control over their content business models, and provide a richer mobile search experience to customers. InfoGin's Intelligent Mobile Platform(TM) (IMP(TM)) will enable mobile browsing of the Web through the mCore Platform.
InfoSpace recently sponsored a whitepaper titled, "Unified Mobile Data Platform: An Analytics-Based Approach," which discusses the evolution of data services and the need for a unified mobile data services approach. For more information about the InfoSpace mCore Mobile Services Platform and to download the whitepaper in full please visit: www.infospaceinc.com/mcore.
About InfoSpace Mobile
InfoSpace Mobile is a leading developer of mobile technologies and infrastructure services that help mobile users quickly and easily discover and enjoy content and information on the go. InfoSpace's mobile platform offers carrier partners a customizable, scalable solution for the programming and delivery of mobile content, helping build stronger brands and generate revenue. Mobile users benefit from the best-in-class local search experience of InfoSpace Find It! (www.infospacefindit.com), and InfoSpace's easy-to-use mobile portal, search, messaging and storefront offerings. The company's mobile products and services are available to over 200 million consumers through mobile operators such as AT&T Mobility, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel, and Virgin Mobile.
Cautionary note about forward-looking statements
This release contains forward-looking statements regarding InfoSpace's mobile technologies business, mCore(TM) Mobile Services Platform and its agreement with Virgin Mobile for its deployment. These forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Factors that could affect InfoSpace's actual results include the performance under the agreement with Virgin Mobile, the progress and costs of deployment of products and services, the scope and timing of user adoption and implementation and market acceptance of the application and features of InfoSpace's mobile search technology, including its mCore(R) Mobile Services Platform. A more detailed description of certain factors that could affect actual results include, but are not limited to, those discussed in InfoSpace's most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q as filed from time to time, in the section entitled "Risk Factors." Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this release. InfoSpace undertakes no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements to reflect new information, events or circumstances after the date of this release or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.
Source: Business Wire (Business Wire India)