Nimbuzz Ping brings smartphone functionality to feature phones

31 Jan 2011

ROTTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS: Nimbuzz, claimed to be the only Over-The-Top (OTT) communications app for the connected generation, has announced the launch of Nimbuzz Ping. It is a push notification feature designed to allow feature phone users to appear online to their friends and receive a free SMS alert when someone in their Nimbuzz community wants to get in touch, even when the service is closed.

An enriching VAS feature of the Nimbuzz Operator Partnership Program, Nimbuzz Ping is initially available to more than 88 million subscribers across the Telkomsel (Singtel Group) network, with a dozen mobile operators throughout the Middle East and Asia Pacific adopting the service over the next few months. Ping is claimed to empower the more than four billion feature phones with smartphone functionality, and brings push-notifications to the 400 million (Nokia) Symbian smartphones, currently lacking this feature.

'Dumb phones' vs smartphones

"Smartphones may get the attention. However, feature phones account for the majority of worldwide phone sales, especially in developing markets where Nimbuzz is taking the lead. According to Gartner Research, the feature phone market sold 264 million new 'dumb phones' in Q3 2010 compared to 62 million smartphones, such as the iPhone/Android/BlackBerry, sold during the same period of time. Ping allows operators to increase data sales and drive up loyalty with an innovative VAS offering that bring smartphone functionality to feature phone customers," said Evert Jaap Lugt, CEO, Nimbuzz.

Ping is free for users to enable inside Nimbuzz and complements the company's "always-on" product nature. While operators provide the SMS alerts, Ping drives up ARPU via new revenue stream from the additional data use that occurs when customers are prompted to log-in to respond to chat messages, or shared files. With Nimbuzz Ping, users appear online and available to their contacts even when the Nimbuzz app is closed. When one of their contacts wants to reach them, Ping delivers a free SMS message to their home screens, prompting the user to log in to site and start a data session to communicate.

Nimbuzz Ping is targeted to the mass market of feature phones and optimized to work on low bandwidth networks. For more information go to www.nimbuzz.com/ping.

Nimbuzz is the free calls and messaging app. The multi award-winning Nimbuzz application is designed to enable people to enjoy free calls, instant messaging, and social networking.