Licensed to simplify

BulletIN.net receives patent for single-button reply to mobile e-mail

They say patience is a virtue. But when it comes to new applications, carriers can bet consumers will throw that line of thinking out the window if the user interface is not easy to use.

BulletIN.net, which develops and supplies two-way wireless Internet solutions, is on a mission to improve the user interface. Recently awarded a patent for single-button reply to mobile e-mail on short message service (SMS) or Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) phones, the company hopes to promote the use of instant messaging and SMS-based mobile commerce by simplifying the experience.

BulletIN.net is following Amazon.com's lead, which received a patent for its 1-Click technology more than a year ago. Since then, Amazon.com has had the exclusive right to offer an easy-to-use online shopping experience by allowing users to make purchases with one click of the mouse.

Although BulletIN.net's patent is for something different, the idea of ease applies. The company's patent protects a process for replying to e-mail messages received on a wireless device that has SMS capability. When the company's SMS gateway is installed between the Internet and a carrier's SMS center (SMSC), it adds a temporary reply address to each SMS message sent to a particular device. The gateway then can match the reply to the appropriate outgoing e-mail message and access the original reply address from the outgoing e-mail message, alleviating the need to key in an address.

The company expects this process will make wireless messaging more attractive.

"The most important part of the equation is how easy [an application] is for users to understand and use," said Andy Rabhan, vice president of business development for BullentIN.net. Although BullentIN.net has had the single-button reply process technology for a couple of years, it just received the patent in October.

Considering the recent rise in two-way SMS offerings, with AT&T Wireless and Sprint PCS announcing messaging applications, the company believes there is an even bigger need for carriers to focus on simplifying the user interface to spur service adoption. Regardless, both WAP and SMS are expected to attract millions more users over the next couple of years, though SMS will gain more ground.

"As carriers roll out two-way SMS in the United States, in terms of using e-mail, it will be imperative to use our technology," Rabhan said.

BulletIN.net can hook into a carrier's SMSC so that it can begin offering the service. For those carriers with their gateway in place, the company is considering licensing the process to carriers and infrastructure providers.

However, some analysts are leery about how significant this actually would be for carriers, considering SMS is not used that much in the U.S.

"Short messaging has not caught on with the wireless phone [in the U.S.] because there are a lot of pagers," said Barney Dewey, a consultant with The Andrew Seybold Group. "When SMS happened in Europe, they did not have any messaging alternatives. Now alternatives exist, and people are likely to pick something else other than SMS."

However, this type of process could help drive messaging in the U.S., as well as drive operators to use a WAP-based messaging system such as Sprint PCS' instead of SMS, Dewey said.

Since announcing its patent, BullentIN.net has received a lot of interest for the ability, Rabhan said. "If we would have known how much interest it would have gotten, we may have publicized it sooner," he said. "More and more people understand how important the user interface is as compared to the other pieces of the puzzle."

Rabhan recognizes that there are other ways the user interface can be simplified. Another problem clearly affecting the user interface is the keypad, which is not so easy to type on. This is another area that BulletIN.net is working on, he said. "In cooperation with phone manufacturers, we are working to make an easier-to-use keypad."

The company has other patents pending, most of which revolve around user interface and experience issues.