LIGHTSURF RECOGNIZED BY CDMA GROUP

PictureMail and VideoMail are as close as the industry has come to finding the elusive next killer app. Last week in Miami, the CDMA Development Group presented messaging leader LightSurf Technologies with its 3G CDMA Industry Achievement Award for Innovative Use of Messaging and helping operators bring these killer apps to market.

The award, determined by the CDG and industry analysts, is given to the company that has leveraged 3G wireless to deliver messaging applications to the consumer market. LightSurf has helped 10 operators bring picture and video messaging to consumers, including Sprint, Bell Mobility and Rogers Wireless in Canada, Grupo Iusacell in Mexico, and Telecom New Zealand.

The company expects to double the number of operator customers next year and announce two major operators early in the year.

“It’s been a very exciting couple of years for us,” said Robin Nijor, vice president of sales and marketing at LightSurf. “This award is the result of over six years of research and development and deployment.”

During that time, LightSurf has grown to over 300 employees and last year delivered hundreds of millions of messages.

The company also has crossed technology boundaries by delivering services in both GSM and CDMA environments. Next up is interoperability.

“You will see us deploy interoperable services for most of our customers late this year or early next year, Nijor said.

Nijor said that despite the award, the messaging market is still in its infancy. Video phones have only been on the market for about six months and initially operators were focused on getting both the camera phones and video phones to market and are only now turning their attention to value-added services, such as sharing and printing.

Print fulfillment of pictures captured with PictureMail services are proving to be a strong value add. “We’ve rolled it out nationwide with Sprint,” Nijor said.

Part of the benefit to the LightSurf platform is that it automatically enhances the photos before they are shared or printed. For now, most imaged are VGA-like quality, which Nijor said with good lighting is good enough for print. As mega pixel phones hit the market, print fulfillment is likely to grow even more.

It’s an evolutionary technology, Nijor said. “Back in 1998 we were only thinking of PictureMail and VideoMail services, now we are winning awards for it.”