fastmobile, a mobile instant communications development company, today announced that it is teaming up with Chikka Asia Inc. to develop a downloadable, mobile-to-mobile version of the popular instant messaging (IM) application Chikka Messenger. This version will be launched with Globe Telecom, the Philippines’ largest mobile operator, as part of an integrated client being developed for Globe Telecom by fastmobile.
Already, around 25 million customers have signed up for a PC-to-mobile Chikka Messenger service, making it one of South East Asia’s most popular IM services. This enables computer users to send IMs to mobiles, and vice versa.
The fastmobile-developed Globe Messenger service will put many of the features and functionality of the Chikka IM – PC service into the hands of Globe mobile customers with mobile handsets that incorporate the Symbian and Java operating system and are compatible with GPRS, EDGE and 3G mobile networks. Users will be able to utilize the Globe messenger application on pre-loaded and existing Nokia handsets, then seamlessly connect to the Chikka community as easily as with a PC.
fastmobile has also created similar mobile messenger clients for Yahoo!.