Openwave and Sirf aim to own the handset's screen

AIMING TO copy Google's success in search and advert provision - but in the world of mobile phones - has motivated silicon provider, Sirf Technology and software specialist, Openwave, to join forces.

The pair believe they have found the answer to owning the mobile handset's screen by combining content discovery with location based technology.

As we all know, Google's existing web model simply won't translate into the handset arena. The screen's too small and users won't type in long character strings.

So the pair believe the solution lies with providing location based information to a variety of handset apps, some of which they insist on calling 'widgets'.

Openwave's contribution is not merely to provide the handset browser, but a whole software development platform in the shape of its Midas product.

Midas has the advantage of being able to run on almost any feature phone platform including Windows Mobile, Symbian, BREW, QTopia, and Linux.

It also provides a number of options as to how to integrate content discovery with the handset's user interface. These include controlling the handset's idle screen to completely customised apps or - to use their jargon - widgets.

As Midas is a development environment, the partners expect content providers and ad agencies - not just the network operators - to combine to create their own location based widgets.

A good example here would be a petrol company such as BP which could provide a find-the-nearest-petrol-station widget. This would have the advantage of catering to the handset owner's desire to utilise a particular loyalty card.

Sirf can, of course, provide all the necessary handset silicon supporting not only GPS, and Assisted GPS (A-GPS) but other location techniques such as cell site location.

The pair are also banking on the fact that mobile phones are beginning to be viewed as serious alternatives to dedicated route mapping devices from suppliers such as Tom Tom and Garmin. µ