MobUI Joins iPhone, Google Android, BlackBerry in Robust Mobile Application Market

Addressing a robust market that serves what many IT insiders call the year’s most significant technological innovation, a group of industry veterans today are launching a new mobile application development company.

 

Officials at MobUI Corporation say they’ve acquired a mobile application platform company and are prepared to create iPhone (News - Alert), mobile Web and downloadable applications for major consumer brands.

 

Backed by funding primarily from GlobalNET Mobile Solutions, a wireless application services provider in Latin America, MobUI acquired Action Engine (News - Alert) Corporation. The Bellevue, Washington-based on-device portal company’s customers include brand names such as The Wall Street Journal.com, Sports Illustrated, AOL, MarketWatch.com, Barron’s.com, Golf.com MSNBC.com, and TiVo (News - Alert). MobUI officials say they’re planning to use the acquisition to expand their focus even beyond the popular iPhone, to downloadable, native mobile apps.

 

MobUI’s philosophy, according to founders, John Burry and Brandon Albers, is to speed up development by relying on a sort of factory-line model, dividing projects into “separate micro-efforts.”

 

TMCnet caught up with Burry in advance of his company’s launch, and talked to him about MobUI’s niche in a market dominated now by the iPhone, which is expected to get some competition soon from Google’s Android (News - Alert) platform and BlackBerry’s App Center.

 

Our exchange follows.

 

 

JB: For major consumer brands who want to quickly offer consumers compelling mobile applications, MobUI is offering the mobile application development services to get those brands to market fast. We combine a team of mobile application development experts with leading mobile application development technology (secured by the purchase of Action Engine) to quickly build applications for sale in the iPhone App Store, Google’s Android Market, Blackberry App Center and other consumer download stores. With which brands would MobUI applications integrate? MobUI can create applications for any major brand across any type of mobile phone. We have several large brand-name clients ready to launch and we will be publicly revealing our first customer later this month. 

 

JB: We are choosing not to disclose the exact figure but it is in the multi-million dollar range. 

 

How many companies are backing MobUI? 

 

JB: GlobalNet Corporation is the only major investor to date, although the company is currently reviewing bid terms from additional interested investors and may announce more financial backers before the end of the year.

 

TMCnet: Many developers expressed some frustration with the way Apple conducted its app development program. Others are complaining about the way Google is handling development for its Android platform. What is MobUI doing to draw developers?

 

JB: MobUI hired the best mobile developers from Action Engine and combined them with exceptional developers from Microsoft to form our team. This gives us a large group of engineers who are experienced with the challenges of mobile development, including knowing ways to expedite the mobile application certification process and get to market quickly on a wide array of mobile phones.

 

JB: MobUI uses the Action Engine mobile application platform as one tool in our toolkit for building applications for Java, Blackberry, BREW, and Windows Mobile powered phones. We also use the platform’s mobile advertising engine and built-in instant messaging technology to add advertisements and social networking capabilities to the applications which we build. It provides us with a faster way to develop applications for those specific device types and get to market quickly.

 

JB: With more than 100 million applications downloaded from the Apple iPhone App Store, RIM’s announcement yesterday of a new Blackberry App Store, and the hotly anticipated launch of Google’s Android Market, the mobile application development market is witnessing tremendous growth. While it is a tough time to launch most types of new companies, the mobile application market is witnessing a huge increase in consumer demand which is making it a great time to launch companies dedicated to helping the large brands deliver in this area. 

 

JB: Absolutely.  The MobUI team has been using this type of technology for eight years as they built user behavior analytics into the Action Engine platform and continue to do so on the MobUI solutions.  The data gathered on applications, screens, and specific features being used and user paths through the application is extremely valuable in helping understand what users are doing and what they want to see.