Montreal ISVs tackle mobile address book issues

A pair of Montreal-based companies are collaborating to solve address book management nightmares faced by smart phone users.

UNYK (pronounced “unique”) is tackling contact information management with a cloud-based system that uploads address books from multiple sources – including Gmail, LinkedIn, Hotmail, Yahoo!, AOL, .mac, Outlook, Outlook Express – and merges them into one. When a UNYK user updates their contact information in the UNYK system, fellow UNYK user address books are automatically updated as well, which keeps the information current.

Since its launch in September 2005, UNYK remains as a beta release. While uploading contact information isn’t seamless and fields don’t necessarily translate as well as they ideally should, UNYK has amassed over 10 million users. Plus, the service is free.

UNYK has now partnered with Mobivox and will be adding the Mobivox platform, Mobivox/PL, to its system. As a result, users will be able to access their UNYK address books by phone and add new contacts using Mobivox’s prime voice user interface. Users will also benefit from low-cost long distance calling options and other Mobivox voice-activated telephony services under UNYK branding. The beta release will be available this November, with worldwide availability scheduled for January 2009.

“Everything that our customers of our direct-to-consumer business today get, UNYK’s customers who sign up for the UNYK-branded service will be able to get,” said Mobivox CEO Peter Diedrich. “They will benefit from our future roadmap and so on.”

The future roadmap for Mobivox’s IP telephony services will be made available next week, when the company will cease to offer free calling between Mobivox members. “We’re changing it to a rewards program for those customers who actually decide to sign up for the service and pay us…the free member-to-member was in many cases abused…you don’t make a lot of money running a business when things are free,” said Diedrich.

A single up-to-date, all-encompassing address book, accessible from anywhere with no threat of loss or theft is every users’ dream, said Michelle Warren, president of M.W. Consulting in Toronto. Add the ability to make calls to anyone in that address book using voice commands from your mobile phone at low-cost long distance rates.

“Having it up there in the cloud, all in one spot, is just easier from a day-to-day manageability and usability perspective,” she said.

Mobivox was initially a dream come true to the mobile phone user with expensive long distance rates. With free calls between members, all users had to do was sign up for the free service online and convince the people they wanted to call to do the same. Membership was activated by placing one initial call, which was also free thanks to an initial credit the company offered in exchange for new membership. Calls between members around the world took place by either party calling a local Mobivox access number.

As opposed to Skype, which provides free VoIP calling between users and requires payment for calls to landlines and cell phones, Mobivox members don’t need Internet access to make calls and can to or from any phone number. It truly offered the option of free local calling, around the world, with no strings attached.