Red Bend Improves vCurrent Mobile

Red Bend Software, which specialises in mobile software management and Firmware Over-the-Air (FOTA) updating solutions for mobile phones and wireless modules, has announced the general availability of vCurrent Mobile version 5, from 30 June.
Red Bend says the new release significantly improves the user experience, as the first FOTA software that gives manufacturers and operators the ability to update mobile phone firmware while a user is using the phone. This innovation completely changes the paradigm of how FOTA updates are performed, says Red Bend, and eliminates a barrier to adoption by making the issue of update time irrelevant.
Red Bends vCurrent Mobile enables mobile phone manufacturers and operators to deploy and install firmware updates over-the-air. The patented software identifies the essential changes from an existing version of firmware to a new, updated version. vCurrent Mobile, which has been adopted by  the worlds leading mobile phone manufacturers in more than 100 million handsets, generates extremely compact firmware updates that can be rapidly and cost-effectively delivered onto the handset with 100% accuracy. As mobile phones increasingly become integral to all aspects of daily life from communication to entertainment to business applications, users expect their phones to be always-on, says Red Bend CEO, Yoram Salinger. vCurrent Mobile version 5 delivers the most user-friendly FOTA experience by performing software updates in the background, while the user continues to use the phone. Previously, the mobile phone was powered down during the FOTA update, which could take up to 10 minutes. With our newest innovation, users can receive and update the latest software directly to their phone without disruption.
vCurrent Mobile version 5 benefits mobile phone and M2M (machine-to-machine) manufacturers, operators, and consumers with new innovations in over-the-air software updating. These include:
Background Updates – Today, firmware updates are performed while taking the mobile phone offline. Red Bends Background Update feature, developed with patented core algorithms, changes this paradigm by making the update process virtually seamless to the consumer. Red Bends Background Update feature allows access to the complete functionality of the handset while the firmware image is being updated, enabling the user to decide when to reboot the phone and activate the new software version. This innovation makes irrelevant the issue of update time previously considered a key factor in the user experience of FOTA.
Revertible Updates – Multiple revertible update options in vCurrent Mobile version 5 improve the consumer experience by enhancing control of the update process from reverting to a prior source version, or cancelling an update midway though. This capability affords new revenue opportunities for operators by enabling them to offer new features and applications during a trial period, and then removing the software from the phone if the consumer does not subscribe. Revertible Updates also benefit M2M manufacturers. If the M2M module detects a malfunction in the new software version, it can roll-back to the previous version without retrieving a reverse update file from the device management server improving reliability, particularly if the malfunction is detected to be in the network connectivity software.
Performance and Flexibility – Improvements to vCurrent Mobiles update file size and resource requirements raise the bar in FOTA performance, Red Bend claims. The algorithms in version 5 reduce the size of the update files by up to 10% and significantly reduce the RAM requirement for compressed images. These performance improvements support the growing trend for large (100MB+) compressed images with a small RAM allocation, enabling vCurrent Mobile to work within any constraints dictated by the platform architecture.
FOTAs value is only fully realised if its easy for manufacturers and operators to perform the updates, which hinges on a user-friendly experience, says Matt Lewis, Director of Research and Consulting at ARCchart, a UK analyst which has published a research paper on FOTA. We believe that innovations like Background Updating will greatly enhance the FOTA consumer experience, driving mass market adoption and making software updates over-the-air common place.