The Mundu messenger - how to reach the billions
Thursday, 01 February 2007, 18:30 IST
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Mumbai: Imagine a software company that looks with disdain at the desktop computer - and instead believes that mobile solutions are the way to reach the "next billion". Mumbai-based Geodesic "doesn't develop anything for the desktop, but aims at the next billion people", says senior vice-president (product technology and strategy) Atul Chitnis. Chitnis says the emphasis is on the "iPod generation... people who don't use computers at all, but yet need certain tools to access the power of computing. And the firm is attempting to take its approach global with its Mundu Messenger flagship. "Mundu means a lot of things in many languages. But basically it's a kind of a Man Friday. Someone who's always there to help you," Chitnis told IANS, explaining the concept behind the name for their Mundu Messenger software tool. Instant messaging or IM is a type of "real-time" communication between two or more people, who type text to each other, usually via the Internet. But Mundu Messenger does more. Mundu IM seeks to allow all the different branded instant messengers to talk to each other. It lets users communicate with one another "instantly and seamlessly" across major instant messaging services including ICQ, Yahoo, MSN and AIM. "IM in our case doesn't stand for 'instant messenger'. It stands for 'interoperable messenger'," said Chitnis. Mundu Messenger also ambitiously seeks to place instant messengers on "just about every mobile device". You need a GPRS-enabled (General Packet Radio Service) phone at the minimum to use this. One that can produce TCP/IP," he said. Mundu Messenger is working towards a new release, Ver 4. The first few versions worked only with Palm-top computing devices. "Now, we're bringing it out for every platform (including mobile telephones) you can think of," Chitnis said. "One nice thing about Mundu Messenger is that it allows you to have a conference between (multiple) people on all platforms-MSN, Yahoo, GoogleTalk and more-as if they were all using the same platform," he added. Mundu Messenger has been sold at US$29. "We market internationally. But most don't seem to even realise that they're dealing with an Indian company. Frankly though, we're not a typical Indian kind of company," said Chitnis. The firm has development offices in the US, the UK, Sweden, HK and Singapore. Chitnis said that their firm had been rated as the "seventh largest IM client platform in world." Mundu Radio is another of its products. Released last year, it runs on all sorts of mobile devices, and allows users to access the "tens of thousands" of internet radio stations. Targeted at the young obviously, Mundu Radio offers a mobile phone that is far better than an MP3 player. It asks: "Why stop at a few hundred songs, when you can pick from tens and thousands of radio stations, right on your wireless handset?" Mundu Radio works with Symbian, Windows Mobile and Palm-based Mobile Phones, Pocket PC and PDA devices to offer streaming internet radio stations on a handset. You need a data connection for the phone (such as GPRS/CDMA/Wi-Fi). He feels that a "lots" of people are now using hi-tech mobile phones, with prices also becoming "much more reasonable" and tumbling fast. Mundu Radio is free to use, but could become 'paid'. "Yet the functionality you have today would always remain free, says Chitnis. MunduSpeak is another tool that uses the low-cost VOIP (voice over internet protocol) solution to allow your GPRS-enabled mobile phone to speak via the Internet to "anyone in the world". Chitnis argued that, in some ways, this was a superior solution to Skype, the widely popular solution for computer-to-computer low-cost long-distance international telephone calls. "Skype needs huge bandwidth, which can't work on a mobile. Our product ensure that even in the worst situation, one can still have a clear conversation," said Chitnis.
Source: IANS
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