Red Bend Software,  which provides firmware over-the-air (FOTA) update technology for mobile phones, and TAT (The Astonishing Tribe), which develops mobile phone user interface (UI) technology, have announced a joint marketing and technology partnership that will allow greater personalisation of mobile handset user interfaces. Under the agreement, the two companies will work together to enable TAT to offer new customisation services to its customers using Red Bends EFD technology.
Using Red Bends Embedded Feature Delivery (EFD) technology, TAT customers will be able to dynamically modify deeply embedded UI elements within mobile handsets, allowing new graphical objects and components that define the complete phone experience to be provisioned directly to end users over-the-air.
Until now, updating embedded UI software components has been a lengthy process, determined by handset firmware release schedules, sometimes up to 18 months. Red Bends EFD technology removes the timetable bottlenecks by allowing handsets, at the point-of-sale or in the hands of end users, to be immediately and easily enhanced with new and upgraded UI software elements, independent of the handset firmware. Combined, this joint capability allows for operators and service providers to address the growing demand for handset personalisation by enabling segmented customised user interfaces to be provisioned at any time.
TATs user interface technology provides rich, visually appealing and easy-to-use mobile phone user interfaces. Red Bends EFD technology enables mobile operators, handset manufacturers and application developers such as TAT to have greater flexibility in customising mobile handsets with new or upgraded core functions. These new functions can be requested by the user or delivered by an operator over the air, eliminating the need to visit a service facility, making the process more convenient for users and more cost-effective for suppliers.
Red Bends technology will provide us with new capabilities to quickly deliver enhanced features to our OEM customers, sais TAT CEO Charlotta Falvin. By using EFD, we will be able to significantly enhance the dynamic customisation capabilities of the TAT rich user interface offering.