This time we mean business, COO says
Java based mobile operating system developer Savaje has a renewed focus for 2006, and will have commercial devices soon. “We’re back,” COO George Grey said.
Boosted by a deal from Chinese OEM/ODM GSPDA to produce a wireless PDA based on its OS, and by LG’s commitment to trial the technology, Savaje has said it is back in the market to do real business in 2006.
Admitting the company had been in stealth mode since March of last year, Grey said the company has new invesment, and has finally moved from technology development to a customer facing business. In recent times the ceo, vp marketing, vp business development and other roles have all been new hires.
And the OS is ready and able to do the job of reducing development costs for OEMS and ODMs, and increasing revenues and data and content service take-rates for oeprators, Grey said.
Savaje OS’ great claim is that because it is an all-Java based OS, from the kernel to the UI, it operates much more efficiently with the mainly Jave based applications in the mobile market. Java is more attractive to developers, Grey said, because it is a much more widely and more easily understood environment.
Its other great attraction is that it allows applications to take on the look and feel of the operator UI on the handset, without further integration or development. Development time and costs to meet Vodafone Live! specifications, for instance, are greatly reduced. And the operator saves its time producing its new specs every six months. Adopting a native Java OS also means OEMs don’t need to develop their own proprietary OS, as they currently do. Further, rather than optimise a Java application for they OS, as the device platform is already Java, the application is essentially pre-optimised.
Of course, the drawback for Savaje OS is the dominance of Symbian, and, to a marginally lesser extent Windows Mobile, in the market. Grey argues that as Sybian is so important to Nokia, and Nokia has such market power, a new OS meets resistance. There have also been suggestions that the Java OS lacks some full smartphone functionality, and is a little big on the handset. Grey counters that its footprint is smaller than its rivals, using 32MB or RAM compared to the 64MB or 128MB its rivals consume.
But Savaje has been funded previously by Orange and Vodafone, indeed Vodafone has continued its investment. And Grey admits that some of the operators’ motivation has been to use Savaje as a threat to Nokia and other vendors to toe at least some of the line on personalisation and customisation. But now, Grey claims, with Savaje OS based products set to become reality, that is about to change.
Admittedly, LG’s committment is unlikely to bear fruit much before the end of 2006, even later if it decides to skip directly to 3G development.
But the story has moved on for Savaje and will be worth watching through the year.