vCurrent Mobile Firmware updating Over-The-Air (FOTA) - Red Bend

Red Bend Software announced the availability new version of vCurrent Mobile. The Red Bend’s vCurrent Mobile v5 is the first Firmware updating Over-The-Air (FOTA) software that enables mobile phone manufacturers and operators to deploy and install firmware updates over-the-air, while a consumer is using the phone.

Yoram Salinger, CEO of Red Bend Software, said:

As mobile phones increasingly become integral to all aspects of daily life, from communication to entertainment to business applications, consumers expect their phones to be always-on…

vCurrent Mobile version 5 delivers the most user-friendly FOTA experience by performing software updates in the background while the consumer continues to use the phone. Previously, the mobile phone was powered down during the FOTA update, which could take up to 10 minutes. With our newest innovation, consumers can receive and update the latest software directly to their phone without disruption…

The new version of vCurrent Mobile offers new innovations in over-the-air software updating:

• Background Updates: Red Bend's Background Update feature allows access to the complete functionality of the handset while the firmware image is being updated, enabling the user to decide when to reboot the phone and activate the new software version. This innovation makes irrelevant the issue of update time;  previously considered a key factor in the user experience of FOTA.
• Revertible Updates: Multiple revertible update options in vCurrent Mobile version 5 improve the consumer experience by enhancing control of the update process - from reverting to a prior source version or canceling an update mid way. This capability affords new revenue opportunities for operators by enabling them to offer new features and applications during a trial period, and then removing the software from the phone if the consumer does not subscribe. Revertible Updates also benefit machine-to-machine (M2M) manufacturers. If the M2M module detects a malfunction in the new software version, it can roll-back to the previous version without retrieving a reverse update file from the device management server -  improving reliability, particularly if the malfunction is detected to be in the network connectivity software.
• Performance and Flexibility: Improvements to vCurrent Mobile's update file size and resource requirements raise the bar in FOTA performance. The algorithms in version 5 reduce the size of the update files by up to 10% and significantly reduce the RAM requirement for compressed images. These performance improvements support the growing trend for large (100MB+) compressed images with a small RAM allocation, enabling vCurrent Mobile to work within any constraints dictated by the platform architecture.

About FOTA (Firmware updating Over-The-Air)

FOTA is the technology and process allowing embedded software (firmware) to be updated wirelessly, anywhere, and at any time. FOTA is normally associated with bug fixes, and with the typical handset containing as many as 10,000 software defects (most of them latent), FOTA can help accelerate time-to-market by allowing manufacturers to address non-critical software defects after the handset has shipped. Longer-term, FOTA holds the promise of allowing operators to install new revenue channels by updating their customers’ handsets with new features and mobile services, post sale.

Manufacturers are actively deploying FOTA technology direct-to-consumer; Nokia, Motorola, Sony Ericsson and BenQ Siemens all offer firmware updates through their website. Operator use of FOTA updates varies widely. FOTA update capability has been deployed in Japan by DoCoMo, KDDI and Vodafone KK (now SoftBank Mobile) starting in 2003, and in the US with Sprint since January 2005. In Europe, Telefonica and Three are planning to deploy FOTA update capability by early 2007. Operators are not deploying over-the-cable updates due to the complexity of support.

Red Bend’ vCurrent Mobile ver. 5 will be available starting at June 30. 2007

More info: Red Bend’s vCurrent Mobile, Firmware updating Over-The-Air (FOTA)