OStatic

Hosted Funambol Aims to Make Launching a Mobile Cloud Service as Easy as Using One

Ah, the open source business model, and the inevitable question that always accompanies its mention -- "How can you make money if you give the product away?" Then come the raised eyebrows when you mention support and training services. It does work, of course. Any business, whether it makes open or proprietary software products, or noise makers and party hats, needs to diligently think of ways to make its products more useful and appealing to its current -- and potential -- markets.

One of the best ways to do this is to just listen. What are current users (or those who'd like to, but...) asking for? Funambol is no stranger to asking its users how they feel about the business and its services, and seriously considering the feedback that is received. Customer demand is in large part why Funambol now offers hosting services for its commercial Carrier Edition software.

Of course, the Carrier Edition is still available for hosting internally. The Carrier Edition is a bit different than fully open licensed Community Edition -- while some aspects of the Carrier Edition are open, it is has a commercial license that allows users to modify the software without sharing these modifications.

Hosted Funambol, says CEO Fabrizio Capobianco, allows customers to manage and brand the mobile sync software without the hardware and overhead costs -- in essence, customers can just "'add water' to turn on the service." Right now, this service is primarily designed for larger-scale deployments, and can be localized for a number of languages. Funambol will also offer transitioning services from a hosted environment to an on-site one, if and when customers' needs change.

Funambol really does have a well rounded approach. Its developer community is growing at a dizzying pace, it offers completely open software along with commercially licensed products, and, of course, has paid and community support services. But it's not only how it delivers its software -- it's the software that's produced. Funambol makes devices that are traditionally disinclined to work with each other interoperable. Good services, good software, and listening to its customers will make any business -- open, closed, or some mix thereof -- widely appealing.

• open source
• Mobile
• Funambol
• developer
• email
• sync
• push
• community edition

by Alex on Jul. 20, 2009

Thanks for such nice post introducing FUNAMBOL.

http://www.onthenetoffice.com/virtual_office.html

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