Openwave unveils wireless IM

Openwave Systems today released its first instant-messaging application and said it has received its first contract for the product.

UK mobile carrier Genie, a unit of mm02, has selected Openwave to provide an integrated Web, WAP and SMS Instant Messaging platform for its 5.8 million registered users. Openwave Instant Messaging will be deployed as an application on handsets that already can be used for SMS. First shipments are expected to be made to Genie customers in early 2002.

Openwave will ship both a WAP client and a PC-based client, allowing users to maintain “presence” on the server-based system regardless of their location.

“The first thing we think about is making the software very intuitive,” said Jonathan Perera, senior director of product management for OpenWave IM business unit.

Like SMS, wireless IM will let users send messages from their mobile handsets. However, maintaining presence--the ability to determine whether a person is online and willing to communicate--adds a key element to the service.

With Openwave’s system, a user is assumed to be online if their phone is turned on. A later version of the software will allow a network-level presence detector to determine not only the on/off status of phones but their general location.

Deploying the service in the UK, where SMS is “part of the social DNA,” was a natural fit, said Perera. Migrating that service to the U.S. may take some time, but Openwave hopes Americans’ need for immediacy will help push the market.