US operator Cricket Communications has selected mPortals SPRINGBOARD Smart Client and Content Delivery Manager products to create a custom-branded, next-generation mobile user experience for its new Cricket MyHomeScreen product. Cricket is using the SPRINGBOARD platform to facilitate easy discovery and purchase of mobile data services, directly from the home screen of Cricket-supported handsets. MyHomeScreen is available on the Samsung MyShot II, Motorola VE465, Cricket TXTM8, Samsung Messager II, and Cricket A200 handsets, with support for additional handsets comingsoon.
Crickets MyHomeScreen is powered by mPortals SPRINGBOARD Smart Client solution, an end-to-end mobile widget platform that enables Cricket to provide its customers with instant access to Internet content, directly on the home screen of the handset. MyHomeScreen lets Cricket customers personalize their handsets home screen with the content they use most, including the latest weather, news, sports, device applications, popular web links and social networking information.
Embedded on the handset by the manufacturer, Cricket MyHomeScreen provides an out-of-the-box user experience, with no software download required. Future updates and features can be delivered over the air by Cricket, periodically synchronizing widget content and promoting applications on the handset home screen to increase overall adoption of data services. MyHomeScreens app store allows Cricket customers to shop for ringtones, ringback tones, graphics, and other applications.
 MyHomeScreen brings a high-end Smartphone user experience to customers using feature phone handsets, says Jeff Toig, Vice President of Product Marketing for Cricket Communications. By using mPortals SPRINGBOARD suite of products, we were able to quickly create and deliver a very intuitive experience to our customers, enabling them to easily discover and download content and personalize their home screen to suit their needs. We believe that customer handset personalization is the way to increase adoption of our data services offerings.
The SPRINGBOARD Smart Client enables content providers and publishers to easily develop widgets, using open web standards and tools. Third party content providers can build widgets and submit them to Cricket, who then makes them available to its customers.