Handango Offers Symbian Signed Certification

Handango adds industry-standard Symbian Signed to end-to-end platform for developers and mobile operators

Hurst, Texas – July 18, 2005 – Today, Handango, the leading provider of mobile downloads, announced it is offering Symbian Signed certification to mobile application developers. Symbian Signed is an industry adopted testing program to ensure Symbian OS™ applications meet industry standards.  This offering extends Handango’s platform and delivers a complete end-to-end go-to-market service package to mobile operators, device manufacturers, portals and brands delivering content for over 32 million Symbian OS phones in the market.

Symbian Signed testing with Handango costs $200 USD for members of the Handango Software Partner Program. Re-signing updated applications and retesting are also available at similarly discounted rates. Handango lowers barriers for developing on Symbian OS by offering a flexible approach to funding the signing either up front or as an advance in royalties.

Symbian Signed was introduced by Symbian to provide mobile operators with a catalog of third-party verified, trustworthy applications. Since then, numerous operators and Symbian OS phone manufacturers, including Sony Ericsson and Nokia, have signed on to support the program.

Handango
“Handango has invested significant amounts of time and resources to provide developers with a quick, cost-effective program to get Symbian Signed,” said Will Pinnell, senior director of developer relations of Handango. “Members of the Handango Software Partner Program will be the first to have a complete go-to-market solution for Symbian OS applications with certification, signing, distribution, marketing, commerce and payments all integrated from one vendor.”

Symbian Signed is integrated with Handango AMPP, Handango’s marketplace platform for mobile operators and device manufacturers, ensuring that certified applications automatically receive additional marketing and merchandizing throughout Handango’s network of partner portals.

Applications that pass the certification program are awarded the “For Symbian OS” logo.  The logo will appear everywhere the product is sold. Symbian Signed applications are also eligible for inclusion on select sales channels, which require this certification.

Symbian
"Symbian is pleased that Handango is now offering their members Symbian Signed as part of the channel to market. This is an ideal process for allowing Symbian developers and ISVs to get their application to the mass market," said Bruce Carney, head of developer marketing and services of Symbian.

Handango
“Operators and handset manufacturers across the globe are embracing the ‘For Symbian OS’ initiative – and so is Handango,” said Randy Eisenman, president and chief executive officer of Handango. “We have seen exceptionally strong growth in the Symbian OS phone and applications market in recent years and months with average application sales per unique customer jumping 15% from Q4 2004 to Q1 2005 – the latest in a series of signs of strength in the Symbian OS applications market.” 

Developers interested in Handango and Symbian Signed can submit their applications through their Handango developer account by executing a certification addendum. Other developers can join the Handango Software Partner Program by completing an online application at  .

About Handango

Handango is the leading provider of mobile downloads bringing over 50,000 applications and 25,000 digital media titles to market through an extensive global distribution network that reaches millions of mobile customers. Handango's application management and provisioning platform, Handango AMPP, has been chosen as the mobile software delivery platform for Nokia, Motorola, Verizon Wireless, Sprint, Cingular Wireless, T-Mobile, Orange SA, Sony Ericsson, palmOne, Microsoft, HP, Sega Mobile, AOL and more than 100 others.