CounterPath to Release Bria Mobile Softphone App for Android Devices at MWC

With the growing popularity of smartphones and tablets, there has been surge in mobile Voice over IP (VoIP) users across the world. This has given rise to the demand for VoIP calling apps, also known as softphones. According to a recent research from Juniper Research (News - Alert), by 2016, nearly four-fifths of 640 million mobile VoIP users will be making calls through apps downloaded on their smartphones.

Recently, CounterPath Corporation announced it will launch the Bria Android (News - Alert) Edition with video for smartphones and Bria Android Tablet Edition with voice, earlier than previously scheduled. The company is previewing the app at Mobile World Congress (News - Alert) in Barcelona, Spain. The apps will be commercially launched in March.

Bria for Android is a standards-based, service agnostic softphone that provides intuitive user interface for making and receiving VoIP calls on Android devices. The app for smartphones also allows video calling, messaging and managing presence over a Wi-Fi or a 3G/4G wireless connection.

The Android-based softphones are designed to cater the growing population of Android users. Though Apple (News - Alert) iOS devices currently dominate the mobile market, according to the latest Info Tech report, Android adoption is growing four times faster than that of Apple App store, making Android users a niche target for mobile app developers.

“The explosion of smartphones and tablets in the marketplace is driving significant demand for our applications,” said Todd Carothers, senior vice president of Marketing and Products at CounterPath, in a statement.

“We are experiencing a shift in user behavior that requires a similar user experience across disparate devices that enables spontaneous voice, video and messaging conversations,” Carothers added. “We call this device shifting. Adding video calling to Android smartphones and extending support for Android tablets is an important part of our strategy.”

 Bria Android Edition for smartphones and Bria Android Tablet edition allow users to turn smartphone or tablet to their primary communications device. They can also take advantage of low rate VoIP call offers provided by service providers. Users can make video calls and collaborate more easily and effectively from any location with their smartphone app.

Recently, CounterPath (News - Alert) formed partnership with Rogers Communications to allow Canadians use their wireless numbers to enable “single-number reachability” by talk and text whether they are using their mobile devices or computers.