Funambol's dual-licensed SyncML implementation will provide the “synchronization engine” in FIC's Neo1973, the first phone based on the open source OpenMoko platform. The phone will use the stack for OTA (over-the-air) delivery of Blackberry-like “push email,” among a variety of other content types.

Funambol's dual-licensed synchronization stack implements the Open Mobile Alliance's SyncML specification. In addition to “push” email services similar to those provided by the RIM Blackberry, the stack can be used to set up OTA (over-the-air) updates of address books, calendars, photo collections, videos, ringtones, and music files, Funambol says.

Details are sketchy, but it appears that the Funambol synchronization engine will also be used to deliver user-installed applications to the Neo1973 and other OpenMoko phones. The OpenMoko project was launched with the specific goal of letting users add, remove, and update software on the Linux-based phones.

Sean Moss-Pultz, instigator of the OpenMoko project, stated, “Ringtones are already a multi-billion dollar market. We think downloading mobile applications on an open platform will be even bigger.”

FIC COO David Huang stated, “With any mobile phone, the application platform is critical because it directly impacts its quality, cost and ease-of-use. We chose Funambol because it is the most widely used mobile open source project in the world. By partnering with Funambol to provide the synchronization engine for OpenMoko, developers will flock to the project and ultimately, users will receive what they have been demanding from their mobile phones.”

Lots more details about OpenMoko and FIC's open Neo1973 phone can be found in our previous coverage, here.

Availability

Funambol's SyncML software is available as a “preview” release, on its website, here. The company says the software has been downloaded 700,000 times.

 
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