INNOPATH EYES NORTH AMERICA WITH BUY OF OPENWAVE GROUP

InnoPath Software, a vendor in the increasingly heated market for over-the-air mobile device management solutions, has recently hired a new CEO and gained product muscle through the acquisition of a competitor's business, moves that the company hopes are well-timed to a boom in deployment of OTA solutions by North American carriers.

Thus far, the OTA market has been very active, as several carriers have deployed OTA technology to offer faster, more efficient firmware updates to handsets, as well as virus patches and de-bugging programs. Also, the Open Mobile Alliance announced new device management standards a few months ago that are expected to stir the market further. However, most of the market activity has been confined to Asia. Although InnoPath has made progress in that region, and particularly in Japan, the Sunnyvale, Calif., company, like other OTA vendors, has been anxiously awaiting a watershed market event in North America.

“What I saw before I came here was that InnoPath had done a great job of going after the early market for device management, especially in Japan,” said John Fazio, who was just hired as president and CEO of the company last month. “But to be a dominant player in any market space, you need to be in North America.”

InnoPath's acquisition of Openwave Systems' mobile device management group earlier this month could help it do just that. David Sym-Smith, senior vice president of marketing and business development for InnoPath, said that a key part of the deal is the existing relationships that the former Openwave unit has with U.S. carriers, most significantly Cingular Wireless and Sprint. “We're combining the strengths of the two companies, and in doing so, adding applications and customers to our portfolio.”

Specifically, Sym-Smith said Openwave's strength in remote mobile device diagnostics, an increasingly important area with the recent advent of mobile viruses, is helping InnoPath to “flesh out” its own mobile diagnostics offerings. Also, both companies had been working on solutions for configuration management — the ability to set handset configuration parameters for faster activation of data services — and they can now combine their efforts.

As part of the acquisition, InnoPath and Openwave have entered into a global, multi-year reseller agreement under which Openwave will offer InnoPath's mobile device management solutions to its own customers.

Fazio said that there will be more consolidation in the device management market in the next 12 to 18 months, especially as device management comes to encompass everything from OTA firmware updates to new feature upgrades and security authentication and other functions.

“Some companies will move out of the market, some will outsource, but we plan on being a going concern,” Fazio said. “We think that this is the kind of space that creates public companies.”

Fazio is joining InnoPath following leadership stints at several other companies, including 3G equipment provider Venturi Wireless, voice-over-IP company Shoreline Communications, voice mail pioneer Octel Communications, AT&T and Digital Equipment.