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Skyfire Rocket brings company beyond the browser

By: , IntoMobile
Thursday, May 20th, 2010 at 9:00 AM


We’re big fans of Skyfire’s browsers because these bring full Flash videos and rich-media content to your handset with very little hassle. The company is expanding its business though, and Skyfire Rocket will bring that same cloud-computing technology to carriers and handset makers.

Basically, Skyfire Rocket will sit between the phone and high-quality web content and transcode it to the proper mobile format. The adaptive streaming video should help save on battery life, ease network congestion and provide a better overall experience on feature phones and smartphones. This could help handset makers differentiate its devices and the compression and optimization tech should help carriers ease the bandwidth crunch.

There’s also a personalized toolbar that can feature targeted advertising, as well as social-sharing features.

Of course, one wonders where Skyfire fits in a future that will be filled with highly-capable browsers that will be able to handle HTML5 and even Flash (except the iPhone, of course). All of the major smartphone platforms are getting strong browsers (yes, even the BlackBerry) and Google’s webM initiative could mean these handsets can play online videos. Doesn’t this muddy the need for Skyfire’s services?

Skyfire CEO Jeff Glueck obviously doesn’t think so because most of this web video will be optimized for desktops and won’t deliver as smooth of an experience as his product will. Additionally, it’s going to take a long time for HTML5 to really gain traction and consumers are already demanding a high-quality web experience.

“We loving the way the tech is evolving and it fits our direction,” said Glueck. “Of course, we have to keep innovating and adding value … the nice thing now is that we don’t have to build the whole browser anymore and can focus on adding features.”

The company will also be directly competing with Opera for the hearts and wallets of carriers and phone makers but Gleuck said its products are better positioned for a more open future. We’ll see about that one, as Opera has been pretty popular in the mobile space.

About The Author

Marin Perez

Marin Perez has torture tested cell phones and smartphones for industry leaders like CNET and InformationWeek. He remembers when 4G was just a screen on PowerPoint presentations and is fascinated with the amount of innovation out there. Marin has spent a lot of time with BlackBerry and Android but he finally broke down a bought an iPhone to see what all the hype's about. He also has too many tablets.

  • frankie

    What does "a more open future" mean?

  • marinperez

    Good question – I think he's referring to a web based on open standards and tech. Opera's pushing for that too, but its mobile products use a proprietary tech for its server-side delivery.

  • frankie

    Skyfire uses proprietary technology for its server-side delivery too, so I’m not sure why Skyfire would be more “open”.

    Opera is arguably much more open than Skyfire because Opera has been actively fighting for and promoting open standards for more than a decade. It’s a member of numerous standards bodies as well. Is Skyfire involved in promoting open standards at all? What has Skyfire done to promote openness?

    You should follow up on his claim about “a more open future”. He can’t just throw out something like that and not explain what he means.

    So yeah… I still don’t understand how Skyfire with its proprietary technology makes it “better positioned for a more open future”.

  • guntur

    skyfire very good

  • Ozan Ölçer

    Skyfire not very good but not bad .;
    1) we cant see all video in internet
    2)So SLow .
    3)1.5 skyfire better than 2.0 !