Novarra says screen scraping is ARPU increaser

Rating: Company's message was a bit confusing

Either you are trying to promote your own mobile browser or not, surely? Well, Novarra - which offers screen scrapping technology - displayed a split personality over this particular issue in a press briefing.

The company is adamant that getting mobile phone users to employ their handsets as the primary means of Internet access is the way forward and will increase ARPU for network operators.

It claimed that the iPhone - for example, increases AT&T's ARPU from subscribers using data services from $59 to $95 per month.

And - as well all know - the iPhone has a full HTML browser. But it still can't support Adobe Flash apparently. Even the rumoured iPhone 3 won't do this, the company claims.

So the answer is that network operators stick one of Novarra's servers in the middle and it enables the whole gamut of mobile phones to see pages which were really designed for the desktop. Including Flash, of course.

Fine. So you don't need to change your browser. Or do you? Well, Novarra reckons the forthcoming version of its own 'micro browser' is the Bee's Knees.

It has a clever 'magnify' capability, for example, which splits the screen in two. The top half shows an image of the whole page, while the bottom shows the bit you've zoomed in on. Nice.

The browser also always offers the user three specific icons at the bottom of every page it renders. These are 'Goto'; 'Page'; and 'Tools'. Again this is very clever.

If you want a demo, point your browser here. Given the browser can run under Java and Ajax, it can be preloaded onto the cheapest handsets money can buy.

Just as I was sold on the idea of deploying Novarra's browser across an operator's entire range of handsets, the company suddenly demoed its widget capability.

This technology enables developers to create one widget which will run in virtually every browser there is available. Novarra showed a typical LBS style 'Near Me' widget to prove this.

Make your minds up. Do you want to prove your technology can run everywhere? Or do you want everybody to use your browser? Answers on a postcard.

Comments

[Scott Cotter]

Thanks for the summary Tony. Glad to see you appreciate the innovations in the latest Novarra Vision browser (version 8).

We at Novarra would like to share a bit of info to address your questions, especially ‘Either you are trying to promote your own mobile browser or not, surely?’ Our goal is quite simple: to enable consumers to transfer internet habits to mobile and drive adoption, usage and revenue.

However, first I’d like to clarify a point about Novarra’s Vision platform. It’s not a “screen scrape” approach of extracting content from pages. Instead, our content transformation engine processes web pages and adapts content as richly as can be supported by the requesting device. In essence, much of the ‘heavy lifting’ is done by the server, thereby offloading the device.

Second, the Novarra Vision platform (http://www.novarra.com/solutions) supports our goal by providing internet services that operators and internet brands can offer to their consumers, optimized for the capabilities of the mobile device. The platform delivers a great user experience across the broadest range of devices – from emerging market phones, to feature handsets, to smartphones, netbooks, and laptops. Consumers benefit from the ability to view and interact with sites and content that their device may not normally support like secure sites, full desktop sites, Flash, streaming video, widgets and more.

The Vision server, in the network path, working in tandem with the existing software on deployed handsets is the quickest way to enable the most services on the most devices. There is no handset upgrade or software change required by the end user with this approach.

We also offer our browser as an optional component of the platform for operators and handset manufacturers to deploy. We believe the Vision micro-browser offers a superior experience for browsing HTML content (as noted in your comments). It can also provide a widget runtime environment on the lowest capability devices that otherwise have no way of running widgets.

In the end, the operator can choose which capabilities to launch – broad reaching mobile web and/or best experience premium services. Both services further our goal of driving penetration and usage of mobile internet. Our single platform provides the flexibility to suit each specific operator’s needs. Our customers deploy a mix of our available solutions according to their market and needs.