15th - Red Bend Software has licensed its vCurrent Mobile client software in the Softbank 705N mobile phone from NEC Corporation. This is the first NEC phone to come to market with Red Bend’s vCurrent Mobile software. Red Bend announced its customer agreement with NEC in July 2006. As the introduction of number portability frees consumers to shop around for the best mobile phones, services and prices, handset manufacturers and mobile operators are vying to retain customers and build brand loyalty by improving consumers’ satisfaction and experience with their phones. FOTA technology, which delivers software improvements to the phone’s firmware over the wireless network, has become an essential component of customer service for manufacturers and operators.

FOTA provides a convenient and friendly software update mechanism for consumers while speeding time to market for handset introduction. Because of its benefits to the mobile value chain, FOTA has become an important and valuable feature on mobile phones, and is projected to be embedded in 50 percent of all mobile devices by 2008, according to a recently published free research paper from U.K.-based analyst firm ARCchart [http://www.arcchart.com/fota].

“We’re proud to work with NEC, one of the most innovative manufacturers worldwide, to enable efficient and reliable mobile software updates for their millions of consumers by installing Red Bend’s FOTA software in their industry-leading 3G handset models,” said Kazuhiro Abe, President of Red Bend Software Japan KK.

This year, the world’s leading mobile phone manufacturers such as LG Electronics, BenQ Mobile, Sony Ericsson, Sharp, NEC, and other major mobile telephone manufacturers are accelerating their adoption of Red Bend’s FOTA solutions. Red Bend’s vCurrent Mobile client software is now embedded in more than 40 mobile phone models used by more than 45 million consumers around the world. As the market leader in FOTA and mobile software management, Red Bend is pioneering the delivery of new software features and services using over-the-air technology.

“The eagerness with which the giants of the mobile phone industry are adopting vCurrent Mobile testifies to the unrivaled quality and performance of Red Bend’s mobile software management solutions, and our growing leadership in the Japan and Asia Pacific markets,” added Abe. “Red Bend is enhancing its local operations and services with an eye on even greater expansion of usage in Japan and the region.”

The SoftBank 705N is a stylish new model with a simple, thin-profile (16mm) design that fits comfortably in the palm of the hand. The 705N includes a 2-megapixel mobile camera and is rich with features that consumers can customize according to taste or mood, such as wallpapers and menu icons. The new SoftBank 705N is available now to consumers.

About Red Bend Software
Red Bend Software helps mobile phone manufacturers and network operators to accelerate the adoption of new services and features, respond rapidly to customer needs, and reduce support costs through mobile software management solutions. LG Electronics, BenQ Mobile, NEC, Sharp, Sony Ericsson, and other large handset manufacturers use Red Bend’s firmware over-the-air (FOTA) mobile client software to quickly and reliably deliver compact firmware updates to more than 45 million mobile phones already in the hands of consumers. Founded in 1999, Red Bend Software is a privately held, venture capital-financed company with offices in China, Israel, Japan, Korea, the U.K and the U.S.

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