U.S. Cellular buys into BREW client

U.S. Cellular today confirmed that it is using Qualcomm’s new user interface uiOne, making it one of the first carriers to adopt Qualcomm’s new modular BREW strategy end-to-end.

U.S. Cellular, like Verizon Wireless and dozens of other CDMA carriers, has been a BREW customer for years, using its content delivery, management and billing system as well as accessing BREW’s in-house catalog of downloadable applications. Since buying Trigenix in 2004, Qualcomm has added a new component to the BREW platform, a feature-rich customizable user interface that operates above the standard BREW application layer. UiOne allows carriers to create a standardized user interface across all of their handsets, regardless of the manufacturer, while still allowing the carrier to customize the interface to its own customers needs.

Last week, Sprint revealed it is using uiOne to create specific themed phones based on sports or entertainment motifs. Qualcomm has even managed to land its first potential GSM carrier with the UI: last winter U.K. operator O2 agreed to evaluate uiOne in its search for a unified user interface across its handsets. In fact, the uptake rate of uiOne has been phenomenally quick since its unveiling earlier this year, but many of the carriers adopting uiOne are not necessarily committing to the whole BREW platform. When Qualcomm retooled the platform earlier this year, it made it modular, separating out the content catalog, the content management and user interface components. Carriers like O2 and Sprint have opted just for the user interface, while selling and running standard Java applications over their content decks. U.S. Cellular, however, has committed to all three components.