Red Bend Software releases vCurrent® Mobile version 3

New Version Provides FOTA Support for Symbian OS; Supports Multi- Section Images and Compressed Content Updating on Smartphones

London – October 7, 2005 – Red Bend Software, the leading provider of firmware over-the-air (FOTA) update technology for mobile phones, today announced the availability of its vCurrent® Mobile version 3. Building on its proven ability to deliver updated firmware over-the-air quickly and accurately, vCurrent Mobile version 3 delivers important new features including support for the latest version of Symbian OS™, the global industry-standard operating system for smartphones.

The enhancements to vCurrent Mobile extend the benefits of cost-effective, rapid and reliable firmware over the air updating to a broader range of mobile devices.  Using Red Bend’s patented FOTA solution, mobile handset manufacturers and operators can more quickly deliver updated firmware over-the-air to phones already in users’ hands. It achieves this by using Red Bend’s technology to generate updates that are smaller, allowing them to be delivered and easily integrated onto the handset more rapidly and cost-effectively with 100% accuracy.

With the latest enhancements, vCurrent Mobile version 3 enables improved over-the-air updating of mobile devices running Symbian OS v9. Building on Red Bend’s long-standing experience with Symbian OS, it allows handset manufacturers and operators to more efficiently update multi-section firmware images and compressed files, such as the Symbian OS compressed read only file system (ROFS). 

Symbian Ltd
“When innovative companies like Red Bend Software complement Symbian OS, it brings significant value to Symbian’s customers and ensures early compliance with operator specifications world-wide”, said Jorgen Behrens, VP, Product Management & Strategy, Symbian Ltd. “With software update and flexibility being at the heart of Symbian’s value proposition, we clearly recognize FOTA as an important technology for operators, handset manufacturers and end-users.”

Using vCurrent Mobile version 3, individual image updates can be combined into a single multi-section image package that is delivered to the handset, where it automatically updates each image section. Previously, creating and installing updates for different sections of the compressed firmware image needed to be handled separately.

Other enhancements to vCurrent Mobile include:

• Support for the application binary interface (ABI) for the ARM architecture.
• Microprocessors based on the ARM architecture are widely used in mobile devices.
• Support for compressed core firmware images.
• Improved performance for NAND flash memory, which is becoming more common on mobile devices.
• Support for Unicode in file system names which makes it easier to implement and deploy vCurrent Mobile across all global markets.

ARM
"By providing a cross-platform specification developed by ARM which defines how executables and shared objects interoperate for OS or other execution environments, the application binary interface for the ARM architecture is critical to making the process of installing and managing software on mobile devices more efficient," said Ian Johnson, Alliances Manager, Development Systems, ARM. "The support of Red Bend, an important provider of mobile infrastructure software, is a significant step in furthering the adoption of the ABI specification."

Red Bend
“The Red Bend vCurrent Mobile solution has been selected by handset manufacturers accounting for more than 50% of the global mobile phone market,” said Yoram Salinger, president and CEO of Red Bend. “To maintain our lead in the FOTA market, it is important that we support Symbian’s latest release, Symbian OS v9, and be included in the first handsets delivered on this release. vCurrent Mobile v3.0 extends our technology advantage and will accelerate our deployment onto additional mobile devices, particularly smartphones.”

vCurrent Mobile Updating Suite Version 3.0 is available immediately.

About Red Bend Software

Red Bend Software helps mobile phone manufacturers and network operators accelerate the adoption of new services and features, respond rapidly to customer problems and reduce the support costs through firmware over-the-air (FOTA) updates. Siemens Mobile, Sony Ericsson, LG Electronics and other large handset manufacturers use Red Bend’s FOTA technology to quickly and reliably deliver compact firmware updates to mobile phones already in the hands of users. Founded in 1999, Red Bend develops advanced technology that enables reliable, risk-free installation and personalization of critical software through its vCurrent® product line and OMA-DM Client. Red Bend Software is a privately held, venture capital-financed company with corporate headquarters in Framingham, Massachusetts and offices in China, Japan, Israel and the U.K.

Media Enquiries

Peter A. Cohen Red Bend Software 508-270-4590, ext.224 peter.cohen@redbend.com

Steve Sylven Marenghi Public Relations 781-915-5015 ssylven@marenghi.com