Sunday, May 18, 2008
Mobile contacts sync is hot
Contact synchronization is the backbone of social networking, in my opinion. Your "friends" are in your address book. Syncing them on all your devices is a key element of your social life. I always said that the company that manages to "own" your address book will own the war of social networks.Among those that tried, definitely there is Plaxo. Thursday, they were acquired by Comcast. Just when they started moving towards mobile (they are using the Funambol client for Windows Mobile).
Friday, ZYB was acquired by Vodafone. They are a pure mobile address book sync, based on SyncML. Cool company. I met the CEO and I am happy to hear he is a rich man now. He deserves it because I have seen plenty of mobile sync companies but ZYB appeared to me as the best one from the get-going. And Vodafone is the biggest name in mobile. An acquisition by them means a lot.
Now, if service providers are out acquiring mobile contact sync companies, what does it mean?
That mobile contact sync is hot ;-)
If you are one of the service providers that is thinking "and now, what can I do?", I have a suggestion for you. Check my.funambol.com. It works as well as ZYB and Plaxo, when it comes to contact sync (and probably a bit better ;-) You can have it branded and with push email as well. Just give me a call. I have set up a hot line for contact sync yesterday...
Posted by Fabrizio at 21:40
8 Comments:
Andy Wong said...
I recently developed SyncML Client API .NET C# which is open source. During stress testing, I found my.funambol.com was always slower than ScheduleWorld.com. I just wonder, my.funambol.com should be better funded than scheduleWorld.com, how could it be slower?
Another reason I would think of is, my.funambol.com was optimized for mobile devices which has slower bandwidth, and scheduleworld.com's load balance is more friendly to non-mobile devices which have faster bandwidth.
Mobile contacts sync is hot, hopefully my funambol will also be hot fast.
If zyb guys deserve getting rich, I think Funambol guys should deserve more.
I just wonder on what way Funambol guys could get rich.
Comment Posted at 21:07
Fabrizio said...
Hi Andy,
thanks for rooting for us ;-)
We are trying to build a big company, instead of going for a quick sell. Let's see if we can make it ;-)
With regards to myFUNAMBOL, it is a demo service, for marketing purposes. ScheduleWorld is a real service. I guess they have better HW and bandwidth behind it.
fabrizio
Comment Posted at 11:31
Sebastien said...
Hi Fabrizio,
Is zyb using funambol?
thanks
Sebastien from unyk.com
Comment Posted at 12:35
Sebastien said...
Hi Andy,
Do tou know if zyb is using funambol?
Thanks
Sebastien
Comment Posted at 07:27
Sebastien said...
Hi Andy,
Do tou know if zyb is using funambol?
Thanks
Sebastien
Comment Posted at 07:28
Fabrizio said...
Hi Sebastien,
not that I am aware of.
fabrizio
Comment Posted at 07:38
Sebastien said...
Thanks Fabrizio,
I hope we meet in a neer future ;o)
Cheers
Sebastien
Comment Posted at 13:59
Fabrizio said...
Hi Sebastien,
absolutely. Give me a buzz if you are around the valley.
fabrizio
