Colibria, which provides messaging and social networking solutions, has announced the availability of its App Center, which is designed to enable mobile operators to deploy multiple application services through their existing messaging infrastructure. Hosted by Colibria to allow rapid deployment at low cost, the App Center can deliver a number of Internet communities, covering social networks and instant messaging services, to mobile devices, through one simple interface.
With access to a number of featured applications, including Twitter, Google Talk, Facebook and flickr, Colibrias App Center is compatible with a number of existing handsets, opening up potential new revenue opportunities with markets and subscribers not previously able to access mobile applications. Colibria says the App Center provides  extensive features and applications generally associated with high-end Smartphones, enabling mobile users to access applications on handsets that previously could not support such services, such as mobile email.
The Colibria App Center also hosts Internet IM (Instant Messaging) apps, which give access to Windows Live Messenger and other services; content applications, including news feeds; and access to third party applications and Value Added Services, including games, translation services and weather updates. Once these apps have been selected on the phone they will sit in the users contact list, giving them immediate access to the application, and updates when information associated with the application changes. For example, subscribers are updated when their social network receives a post or status change.
Colibria notes that demand for mobile applications and social networking is becoming more prevalent, citing an emarketer prediction that the number of mobile social network users will grow to 800m by 2012. Colibria says its App Center has been designed as a cost effective way to enable operators to mobilise such services, with easy access to frequently used applications, premium services and paid for content, driving additional new revenue streams.
Operators are beginning to see the importance of broadening the mobile community experience, and the new App Center will go a long way to improving this as well as operator revenues, says Colibria  CEO, Keith Gibson. With a single integration point to access multiple social networks, Internet IM services and content, the App Center is already showing from early indications across Colibrias customer base that traffic can double when applications are introduced. Customer expectations are shifting, and operators need to be able to respond quickly to these expectations with innovative new services such as those available through the Colibria App Center.