Xobni, best know for its Microsoft Outlook add-in, has launched Xobni Mobile, initially for the BlackBerry. The company says that the app reinvents the address book, automatically creating rich profiles for every contact you've ever communicated with, regardless of whether they've been manually added to the native address book. Xobni Mobile for BlackBerry is available for download via the Xobni website and soon on BlackBerry App World.
As part of the launch, Xobni is also announcing Xobni One, a service that links information between Microsoft Outlook and mobile versions of Xobni for a more comprehensive and up-to-date address book.
“Xobni Mobile automatically builds and maintains the fastest, most complete and smartest address book you've ever used,” says Xobni CEO Jeff Bonforte. “The launch of Xobni Mobile on the BlackBerry platform is an important milestone for the company, and we have made this even more compelling by powering it with Xobni One. This new service is the foundation for all our future products, and is the result of a significant investment from our product and engineering teams.”
Xobni automatically creates rich profiles for anyone you've communicated with, and makes these contacts available to you on the BlackBerry by opening the Xobni Mobile app, or by flicking up on the trackball or trackpad while in the compose window of the native BlackBerry Email application.
The app can be bought as an on-device product, and can also link with Microsoft Outlook via the Xobni One service. Xobni Mobile with Xobni One enables users to connect Xobni for Outlook with Xobni Mobile on their BlackBerry, making contact information for every person a user has ever communicated with in Outlook immediately available on the BlackBerry. Other contact management functionality includes:
The app also offers email addresses for everyone with whom you communicate; access to contacts within the email compose screen or in standalone mode; saving of Xobni profiles in the event of hard drive crash or lost phone; and prioritisation of contacts by how often you communicate with them. It also offers one-click access to Facebook and LinkedIn profiles, including photos, as well as rapid access to recent texts, phone calls and emails exchanged, and the ability to send your calendar availability to all your contacts.
Non-Outlook users receiving other email on their BlackBerry can use Xobni by downloading the app without Xobni One. These users will not get the benefit of the historic contacts locked up in Outlook, but Xobni will index email on their BlackBerry at time of download and moving forward.
Xobni Mobile is currently compatible with the BlackBerry Tour, Curve 8900, Bold and Storm handsets. The standalone app costs $9.99 (6.54). Xobni Mobile with Xobni One costs $6.99 plus $3.99 per month, or $39.90 per year.
In November of last year, the company released Xobni Enterprise, a solution designed to help businesses of all sizes to easily customise and deploy Xobni throughout the organisation. Xobni says it expects the mobile product to be fully integrated with the Enterprise offering later this year.