iSkoot SDK for mobile device manufacturers brings web apps to any mobile handset

Mobile web service provider iSkoot has announced its new SDK for handset manufacturers. The KalaidaLive client can be installed for little effort on any manufacturers device. The client integrates mobile Internet services into any handset, including low-end devices, and retrieves info and updates from the iSkoot servers.

Mobile social networks like Facebook, MocoSpace or Twitter, as well as IM, e-mail, news feeds and other applications can be handled through KalaidaLive. The iSkoot OEM Program opens a persistent connection to iSkoot’s server, which updates any Web services the subscriber uses. All the processing is done on-server and is optimized for bandwidth efficiency.

From the release:

“Mobile phones are always connected to the carrier network, but most phones cannot receive live updates or properly access Web applications. The iSkoot KalaidaLive SDK enables all phones to access the same server platform as iSkoot’s Notifier application, allowing any phone to receive live Web updates,” said Jacob Guedalia, President and COO of iSkoot. “Most importantly for OEM partners, KalaidaLive provides traffic control and shared intelligence for the host of separate applications currently competing for handset resources, bandwidth, and network capacity. This will greatly enhance the user experience while staying true to iSkoot’s approach of offering carrier- friendly solutions.”

“Smartphones are great for accessing the Internet,” said Mark Jacobstein, CEO of iSkoot. “But most people don’t own a smartphone. And the Internet is virtually unusable on basic feature-phones. So we are trying to bring Internet services to the other 85 percent of the market.”

What we think?

I’m a fan of services like this - pushing smartphones too hard tends to ignore the vast marketshare that owns lower-end devices. There’s a huge amount of money to be made from people who want to use smartphone-like applications, but don’t own smartphones. The simplest way to solve that problem is through “cloud” computing, where all the big crunching is done off-device. This allows the handset to only send and recieve data, without having to do any processing itself.

The big problem with that is that it’s hard to let the consumer know your service is there. Education is a huge barricade, and a lot of mobile web users would prefer services to be clearly linked from a carrier or manufacturer portal. What iSkoot is trying is pretty ballsy - integrating its services directly onto handsets or manufacturer portals is a handy way of by-passing the education issue. If it works, that is. If it doesn’t, iSkoot could easily find itself at swim with all the other companies who are trying the same thing.