Smart phone software provider Geoworks Inc has launched the pilot program for a wireless information delivery service in conjunction with Fujitsu Software Corp. The service, called Premion, will deliver news, stock quotes and other information to users of wireless devices such as cellular phones, personal digital assistants and pagers via the ByeDesk Link server software from Fujitsu, with whom it has signed a co-marketing agreement. The ByeDesk software is installed on a corporate intranet server or hosted by an ISP or GSM-based cellular carrier. It allows users of mobile devices to send and receive email and faxes, access corporate directories and receive instant messaging. Fujitsu said the software should be thought of more as a distribution channel more than an application. It has yet to strike any deals with cellular companies or corporate customers, although it claims to already have thousands of users of ByeDesk through a free trial offer at its byedesk.com web site. Geoworks, for its part, has deals in place with content providers such as United Press International, Data Broadcasting Corp and Zagat Survey, among others. For the time being, the Premion service will be available only to users of ByeDesk Link, but Geoworks said that if all goes well with this initial program and other partners can be brought on board, the service will be made more widely available. The Premion service is the first offering from Geoworks’ Wireless Content and Services group which was set up to help operators deliver more varied information over their existing network infrastructure. The future of the company may be on less solid ground, now that its Geos operating system faces competition in the mobile phone market from the likes of Symbian Ltd and Microsoft Corp – whose Windows CE platform is being looked at by smart phone OEMs that have previously licensed Geos.
