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North American Mobile Operators save $140 Million, Boost Satisfaction with Firmware Over the Air
InnoPath ActiveCare-Powered Updates Reach Mass-Market Acceptance
Sunnyvale, California, December 9, 2009 – InnoPath
Software, the leader in Over The Air (OTA) customer
care for mobile devices and the first company
to deploy a commercial FOTA (Firmware Over The
Air) solution for remote phone updates, today announced that during 2009 North
American CDMA and GSM mobile operators enjoyed an estimated $140 million of
savings through the use of the company’s ActiveCare Mobile Update product.
Savings are a result of reduced device recalls, returns and shorter care calls
to address usability issues. Secondary advantages of FOTA include service assurance,
directly impacting the operator’s revenue, as well as increased customer
satisfaction resulting in lower churn. InnoPath’s Mobile Update is the
only single vendor OTA update solution. Where deployed, it creates an enhanced
user experience and better manageability for the operator via an end-to-end
standards+ solution between the server and the update client.
While smartphones are enjoying increased market
penetration, they also bring greater complexity
and a greater need for updates. Traditionally,
firmware updates have been relatively rare and
for most a very manual process. Recent devices,
such as the Sony Ericsson Satio show the challenges
that both OEMs and operators can face when presented
with a device with significant issues but no
way to address those issues OTA.
The Nokia 5800 XM, a phone which supported
FOTA in some markets but not others, provides
a vivid illustration of the customer impact of
OTA support and the frustration that its absence
can present. Many users in markets such as North
America expressed disappointment when finding
that updates were not available via FOTA or were
later than updates for other markets, showing
the importance of a well thought out, well implemented
update strategy.
Ideally, OTA update and support issues, including
client and server availability and whether the
device will be updated by the OEM or operator,
will be addressed as part of the initial product
development process, not left as an afterthought.
Just as errors or oversights in the design of
the product itself can impact the subscriber
experience, an incomplete support story can leave
customers with a bad taste in their mouths.
In the past year, North American operators
serving over 160 million subscribers have updated
over 3.5 million devices via InnoPath’s
servers across more than 20 device models, resulting
in total savings in excess of $140 million, with
volumes and savings expected to rise significantly
in the future.
“InnoPath deployed the first commercial
FOTA solution in 2003 and we have been the leaders
in that space ever since. Many of our 21 patents
are related to FOTA and it is this technical
expertise combined with real world operational
experience and a world-class interoperability
test team that together give both operators and
OEMs the edge when developing their over-the-air
support strategies,” said John Fazio, InnoPath
president and CEO.
Devices that have been updated in North America
(some multiple times) include:
- Casio C711
- LG GR500
- LG VX11k
- Motorola V750
- Motorola VU204
- Motorola VU30
- Motorola V860
- Motorola W755
- Motorola ZN4
- Nokia 6555
- Nokia 6650
- Nokia E71x
- PCD CDM 8975
- Samsung Rugby
- Samsung SGH-A737
- Samsung u-350
- Samsung u-450
- Samsung u-490
- Samsung u-650
- UTS GTX75
These updates have addressed a variety of problems,
including issues with Push to Talk, dropped calls,
corrupted contacts, crashes/freezes and others,
and utilize a combination of InnoPath and third-party
management clients with the InnoPath ActiveCare
server.
InnoPath will be demonstrating its complete
ActiveCare solution at the Mobile World Congress
in Barcelona, 15-19 February 2010.
About InnoPath
InnoPath, the global leader in Over-the-Air
delivery of customer care, helps operators and
mobile device makers reduce support costs while
providing a better end-user experience by diagnosing,
updating and fixing mobile phones and other devices
Over-the-Air. InnoPath products help shorten
or prevent support calls and drive first call
resolutions. The company’s extensive experience
in production Tier-1 networks helps ensure rapid
and successful deployments in large, complex
environments. With a proven value proposition,
the payback time for an operator deploying our
solution is usually less than one year. Our customers
include AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, Samsung, LG,
KDDI, Tata Teleservices and China Telecom. Discover
more at our website, www.innopath.com,
and our blog, The CSR, at http://thecsr.blogspot.com/.
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