E-mail (and more) solutions provider Seven is letting the carrier and handset manufacturer communities know that its platform is Android-ready.
Seven company executives note that the first commercial Android phone, the G1 with T-Mobile USA, is very much Google centric, which makes it more difficult to use for the average user who wants access to a lot of other services beyond Gmail. “Android is a great operating system, but it’s very focused on a Google-centric world,” says David Ratner, vice president of Engineering and Product Delivery at Seven.
Seven’s software overlay runs on multiple devices independent of whether it’s Java, BREW, Android or something else, and it provides a platform whereby end-users can jump back and forth between their Yahoo!, Gmail, HotMail, Outlook or other accounts for those people who have more than one e-mail account.
Both Microsoft’s My Phone and Apple’s Mobile Me require the end-user to change his or her identify, whereas Seven’s philosophy is end-users should not have to move their data. “Seven focuses on synchronizing the data from where you currently have it,” he says.
Seven also differs from other e-mail and sync solutions, like the one from Funambol, in that it works closely with carriers and handset makers to embed its solution; Funambol is going direct to end-users.
Seven expects to launch on Android devices this year but is not announcing specifics at this time. The company already works with 130 mobile operators around the world.
Meanwhile, Isabelle Dumont, senior director of marketing at Seven, says the company has enjoyed momentum over the past year despite the economy – tripling the number of subscribers and getting its solution embedded on more devices, like the Samsung Instinct.