3G Lab has launched two Trigenix Stores. Based on the company’s customisable user interface solution, Trigenix, the Stores provide ready-to-go solutions for mobile operators. For example, the Service Store refers to an area of the mobile phone’s user interface that draws together the existing data services and gives customers a one click access to them.
According to 3G Lab’s ceo Steve Ives, “The Trigenix Stores make it simple for operators to rapidly roll out exciting new branded services, helping them to drive service adoption and revenue growth.”
The concept may be most familiar as Vodafone Live! but that is not Trigenix based and Ives believes that Trigenix has the edge over the technology used by Vodafone. “Vodafone Live is static and relies on specific terminals” he said. “With Trigenix, the operator can change the look and feel over-the-air on any Series 60 terminal. We’re attempting to leap frog Vodafone Live and offer operators a choice of hundreds of UIs, not just one. We don’t want to imitate Vodafone Live, we want to go one better.”
The advantage 3G Lab can bring to the market, Ives believes, is one of speed. He explains, “Vodafone had a very long lead time. It took a year to get Live into the handsets and six months for customer feedback, the Trigenix integration cycle is more like three months.”
Ives refers to Trigenix as a ‘surface user interface.’ It is actually a UI software layer which is managed over-the-air by a Trigenix server located in the operator’s network. The client can be loaded at the point of sale or downloaded over-the-air, meaning that operators can control the look and feel of a terminal after it has been sold. Ives explained the impact this could have, “Getting control of the UI is a key area with a lot of pressure building.”
He is referring to the growing conflict between operators and terminal manufacturers over the UI. Operators obviously want control to ensure their services work effectively but the UI has been a traditional point of differentiation amongst terminal manufacturers. What the Trigenix solution does is allow an operator to add its piece without having to fight the terminal manufacturer head on for control.
To date, T-Mobile is the largest mobile operator to be announced as a Trigenix customer, and the company is also in negotiations with ‘one of the top four’ handset manufacturers to have the client embedded in the device. Trigenix is only available for Series 60 terminals at the moment but versions for other OS variants are in the pipeline.